OYL The Flash
by David Golightly
Summary: One Year Later, John Fox is now the Flash in present day. Tied in to events at the group fanfic site, DC Infinity. Classic rogues, new villains, and even the heroes from the 853rd Century!
1. Run From the Light: Part One

**Flash**

**Issue #1**

"**Run from the light – Part One"**

The pull was strong. Stronger than before. This wasn't the first time he had felt the desire to simply let go. However, each time there was something for him to focus on. A person he held close to his heart helped him resist the temptation to be swept away in the light. Love, a beacon of sorts, had proved more than enough to guide him.

This time, however, the beacon was gone.

There had been others with him, but they were gone now. He dared not open his eyes for fear of losing his concentration. He knew white and yellow light surrounded him and that it felt soft and inviting. How many others had it claimed? When he had been in this place before he could feel them and sometimes even interact with them to a degree. But now…there was no one.

The temptation to give up the struggle was getting more intense with each passing moment. How long had he been here? Hours? Days? Weeks? It was impossible to tell. Time didn't pass in this realm like it did where he was from.

His mind was beginning to shatter under the pressure. He knew he couldn't give up. People were depending on him. But it was so hard…he felt so alone. There was no one to help him, no one to guide him. He was in this mess all by himself.

The fight to remain independent of the force pulling at him was slowly diminishing. It was like holding a muscle tense…sooner or later, he would have to relax the muscle and let go.

What scared him the most was he had no idea what would happen once he ended the struggle.

---

"Can't you guys just stop robbing banks?" asked Jay Garrick.

The blue and red of his costume streaked around the inside of Keystone City's First Commonwealth Bank. The blur obstructed the view of three men and one woman who had been pushed to the center of the room. Those same people, called Team Turmoil, had tried to break into the bank's vault and relieve it of all the valuables held within.

"I'm not as fast as I used to be," said Jay, "but I can still run rings around you jokers."

He threw a right cross at one of the team members (he wasn't sure which one, they all looked the same) and the momentum of his punch sent the villain to the floor. Running even faster around the ragtag group, Jay built up a small amount of air pressure around them, halting any attempts to escape.

Taking advantage of Team Turmoil's lack of sight and utter confusion as to what to do next, Jay raced outside and over to the hardware store across the street. Faster than the patrons could follow, Jay grabbed several yards of twine and raced back over to the bank. In less than a second, Jay had all four would-be robbers tied up together and sitting on the floor.

"Why go for a bank every time anyway? Why not try something different? I mean, in the last six months alone, I must have hauled you off to jail four or five times. And I know for a fact that at least two of those times you tried to break into this same bank!"

The four Team Turmoil members looked at each other, hoping one of them would be able to offer up an answer. Finally, one of them swallowed the lump in her throat and tried to mutter something.

"We...uh…that is I…well, we didn't think you would expect it," said the only female member, named Wildside.

Jay blinked his eyes. After a brief pause, he could no longer contain his laughter. Several of the 'hostages' in the bank staring at the motley crew couldn't help but laugh either. Jay removed his trademark shiny, metal hat and ran a hand through his nearly white hair.

"You're right," he said. "I didn't expect it."

As usual, the police came to cart the bad guys away and Jay raced through the city after giving his statement to the police. He reminisced about the days when he wasn't the only speedster in town. Like wolves, they had run in packs, always backing each other up. Himself, Johnny Quick, Jesse, Barry, Bart, even the time-tossed Max Mercury…they were like a family. Over the years members of that family had been lost due to very unfortunate events. One year ago, the family had been reduced yet again.

Wally West, the latest to carry the mantle of the Flash, had sacrificed himself to stop an evil so powerful that it took the world's heroes working together to win. The original Superboy, from a dimension long forgotten, had threatened all of existence. Wally, Bart, and Jay pulled him into the Speed Force in an effort to contain him.

The Speed Force was an extra-dimensional energy field that had provided the power necessary for a speedster to move as fast as he or she did. By breaking the light-barrier, the three generations of runners had hoped to capture Superboy Prime within the confines of the field. While the Speed Force powered all of them, only Wally West had a unique connection with it, streamlining the energy directly. He had been their guide inside the Force and the one to physically imprison the rogue Superboy. They succeeded in holding him for a time.

But, as things often do, it went bad. Superboy Prime proved much too powerful to be held captive by even the immense power of the Speed Force. Pushing passed the barrier, Superboy freed himself to return to Earth. Jay and Bart Allen, grandson of Barry Allen, had been released with him. Wally had disappeared completely along with all traces of the Speed Force.

"Hi, Flash!"

Jay slowed his incredible pace slightly and did some fancy footwork to begin running backwards. Thirty feet behind him, he could see a group of kids waving frantically at him and hollering greetings and praises. He waved back before flipping face-forward again and picking his pace back up.

_Flash…_, Jay thought. _Haven't called myself that name in years. I suppose I have more right to the name and mantle than anyone else, but it just wouldn't feel right. I'm supposed to be retired after all! If Joan knew I was as active as I am now, she would have a heart attack. Which reminds me, I should pick up the dinner I promised her._

Jay Garrick, the Golden Age Speedster, abruptly changed his course to head West out of the city. Wind rippled all around his body but it didn't bother him. He had been running most of his life and he was used to the things that went along with it.

Since the Crisis, Jay had been slowed down considerably. When it was all over, he had lost his connection to the Speed Force and the immense power it gave him. His original metagene was still apparently active, however, and he could continue to outrun jet planes. He topped out at around the speed of sound these days, but he didn't mind. It was never the high velocity that thrilled him but rather the sense of adventure.

Of course, getting a woman like Joan didn't hurt either.

Jay smiled at the thought of his lovely wife. He knew that his wife Joan loved him more than anything and he loved her just as much. She had stood by his side over the decades, as well as stood by the window waiting for him to come home from whatever mission he had to accomplish. She worried about his safety but at the same time Jay knew how much she loved having a husband who could run to Beijing for real Chinese food.

Crossing the ocean on his own feet, Jay sped toward the Asian city to get the best chow mien for the love of his life (no MSG, of course).

---

"You're going to be the death of me," said Tim Drake.

"Oh, come on," said Bart Allen, formerly known as Kid Flash. "This will be great. Trust me."

Both of the teenage boys walked through the Monroeville Mall in Central City wearing their plain clothes. Bart had been going through a difficult time over the last year since the Crisis, and Tim, secretly the costumed hero known as Robin, was one of his closest friends. Bart, who was now cut off from the magnificent energy field that gave him his powers, had found a kindred spirit in his non-powered friend.

"I already told you why this isn't going to work. It's a waste of time, Bart. What's the big deal, anyway? Do you have any idea what the odds are--."

"Odds-schmodds," cut in Bart.

The duo made their way through the small crowd and into one of the stores near the entrance. Cigars, magazines, and candy lined the walls of the establishment. A strong odor of tobacco slapped them each in the face after they swung the door open. The owner, a balding black man in his forties, leaned over the counter to eye the pair up before returning to his newspaper.

Bart, trying to look like he belonged in the store, slowly browsed through the selection of magazines while Tim stood back and rolled his eyes.

"Can I help you with something?" asked the owner.

Bart whipped around to meet the man's gaze and put back the issue of _Racing Weekly_. He was nervous, but confident at the same time.

"Yeah, I just stopped in to look around. Nice place. We're killing some time waiting for our other friend to show up."

"Uh-huh."

"Yeah. Oh, hey. Do you sell lottery tickets here?"

"Uh-huh."

"Cool. I'll try playing my lucky numbers. They've never worked before but there's a first time for everything, right?" Bart said, trying to force out a little laugh.

"Uh-huh," replied the owner. "You know you have to be over eighteen, right? It would be illegal for me to sell you lottery tickets if you weren't at least eighteen years old."

"Of course I know that, man. I'm nineteen."

"Uh-huh. You got ID?"

"Well…no. But I'm nineteen, I swear. I mean look at me."

"Uh-huh. Sorry, kid. No ID, no lottery ticket."

Bart looked at Tim for help, but all he got was a motion for them to leave. He wanted to protest, but he knew it was a lost cause and simply left the store with his friend.

"I told you. And that was the exact reason I gave, too," said Tim once they had reached the parking lot of the mall.

"I rapidly aged through my whole childhood and didn't have anything to show for it," Bart responded, pushing his hands deep into his pockets. "Last year, when I popped back out of the Speed Force, I aged again. I mean, what's the point of being nineteen if I can't enjoy it?"

"You may look nineteen, but you have no way of proving it. It isn't like you can just go to the DMV and tell them they goofed on your driver's license. Do you even have a driver's license?"

"I used to. It expired."

"The lottery is just how God punishes people who are bad at math anyway."

"Yeah…still would have been fun," Bart muttered.

The two continued their walk in silence until they reached their destination a few blocks down. The Central City Train Depot was much more crowded than the mall but the two young men had no trouble finding their way to Tim's stall. The 4:15 train to Gotham looked like it was right on time and people were beginning to board.

"Thanks for coming out for a couple days, Tim. It was fun."

"No problem," Tim said. "Give me a call anytime. Maybe you can swing by Gotham and I'll show you where Poison Ivy used to grow these giant plant-men. She was in to some weird stuff."

"Sounds cool," Bart commented.

"Hey," Tim chimed in, noticing his friend's downshift in attitude. "You'll get back in the game, Bart. Don't worry about it. Enjoy the vacation. You've got a whole world to experience as a different person now. You can even make time for a girlfriend or something."

"Maybe," Bart said. "Maybe not. Wally's gone and it's been a year."

"Hang in there, man. You've still got friends to depend on. The Titans won't forget you."

"Train 105 to Gotham ready for departure. Please finish boarding," a digital voice squawked over the loudspeaker.

"Don't miss your train," Bart said. "I'll catch you next time. Good seeing you."

"Ditto. Say goodbye to Mr. and Mrs. Garrick for me."

The friends shook hands and Tim boarded his train. As the steam blew out from under the huge metal transport and the whistle sounded, Bart watched his friend return back to his life among the capes. Among the flying super humans. Among the criminals and villains. Among the excitement.

_Tim's a good friend_, thought Bart, _and he probably understands what I'm talking about more than anyone else. In a way I guess he's going through what I am. I mean, who is Robin without Batman? Yeah, Tim doesn't have it any easier._

Once the train was out of sight, Bart left the depot and hailed a cab. Mrs. Garrick had mentioned that they were having Chinese for dinner tonight and he didn't want to miss it. His thoughts trailed along as the cab drove on. No matter what he tried to think of, his thoughts always seemed to return to one thing.

_Who is a powerless Kid Flash, especially without Flash?_

---

His mind raced, but that was normal. Thoughts formed and dissipated into the folds of his consciousness quicker than normal humans could even fathom.

_Findthekillerandsnaphisneck._

The red uniform on his body was not his own, but he wore it anyway. He wasn't the Flash, but he was the Flash. He wasn't a hero, but he was a hero.

_Breakthemdowntobuildthemup._

Even though thoughts came and went rapidly through his brain, one thing remained constant: confusion. He remembered his original goal that had once seemed so clear. Now, amidst the recent events in his life, he didn't know what his goal truly was anymore.

_RunagainsttheEarth'srotationandstoptheplanetcold._

The fastest man alive sat in a dark room by himself, rocking back and forth. His powers weren't derived from the mythical Speed Force he had heard so much about. Velocity was a misnomer in his case. He didn't really _move_ faster than everyone else, but rather the clock _slowed_ for him. His powers were time-based, which meant he never felt the absence of the Speed Force one year ago.

A specific group of trusted and famous individuals had done something to him. Told him one thing when they meant another. They affected his mind somehow, he knew that much.

_Gettosafetybeforetheyfindyouagain._

He didn't know how they did it or how they caught him. He didn't even know if he ever wanted to see the light of day again. He just sat there in the dark room by himself. His mind tried to heal itself but things like that took time. It was ironic, given his powers.

Once he had the ability and the state of mind to, he had run from his captors. Well…that's how he saw them anyway. There was no doubt in his mind that the people who were holding him against his will called themselves something else. Heroes.

_TheyarenotheroesI'maherotheonlyhero._

Innately, he knew what he wanted to do. What he desired to do. He wanted to show those so-called heroes what a real hero was like. He wanted to pull them down so they could stand up better. He could show them.

He would show them.

---

The pull was stronger than ever before. Finally, he opened his eyes to flashes of white and yellow light streaking across his entire field of vision.

He was exhausted but he didn't want to give up. The strength to hang on was quickly leaving him but he knew he just had to hold on. The truth was he was scared.

He raised his arms, preparing to embrace the light. He could fight it no longer. In this plane of existence he had no need to breathe, yet he exhaled slowly anyway. The time had come to be swept away and he was ready for it. He was, after all, a hero. Hero's did what they had to do.

His fingers outstretched, the hero felt his very essence start to slip away into the light. His body felt lighter than before, like it was evaporating away into space. Soon it would all be over.

Suddenly, his fingers clamped shut and the weight of his body returned to him. Something had brushed against his consciousness and snapped his focus back to attention.

Directly in front of him, amidst the white and yellow light, a line of thin, blue light formed. He didn't so much see it with his eyes than he saw it with his mind. He simply knew it was there. Tensing and vibrating his muscles once again to force the light from overtaking him, he reached out and gripped the line.

As his fingers wrapped around the blue energy, it solidified. As he strengthened his grip, he felt his awareness increase. It became easier to resist the surrounding light and he felt grounded to something tangible again, much like he had during his other journeys to this place. The feeling was similar…but different.

With a final burst of will, the man stabilized his consciousness and pulled on the blue line of energy. The white and yellow light swirling all around him seemed to condense and then began to pour into him. The pain was like nothing he had ever experienced before and he had no word to describe it.

Then, just as fast as it had started, it ended. The man and his pain, the blue line, even the very realm of light…all of it…disappeared in a large flash of energy.

---

"Dim sum!" exclaimed Bart.

"Mind your manners," said Joan Garrick.

"Go ahead," said Jay, "eat while it's still hot."

The elder speedster took off his trademark hat and kissed his wife on the cheek. It had only been a couple of minutes since he picked up the food from his favorite little stand in Beijing. When he had returned with the meal, Joan and Bart had eagerly been awaiting his arrival. The smell of freshly cooked Chinese food spread through the old house.

"Tim catch his trian all right?" asked Joan.

"Yeah," replied Bart, as he reached for the soy sauce. "I know he's got a lot going on out in Gotham and Bludhaven, but it was nice to see him for a couple days."

"He's a good kid," said Jay. "Looks like the next generation has things under control, huh Joa--"

Jay dropped his plate on the floor and gripped his chest. The original scarlet speedster fell to his knees and expelled all the breath in his lungs. Searing pain pounded inside his chest with each beat of his heart.

"Jay!" screamed Joan as she rushed to his side.

Bart followed her as fast as he could and tried to help Jay to his feet. Together, the two of them were able to carry the pained man to the couch and lay him down. Jay still clutched his chest after being strewn out on the sofa, the pain still beating in time with his heart.

"My lord," said Joan. "I think he's having a heart attack! Quick, Bart, call an ambulance!"

---

NEXT ISSUE: One hero returns to the race and another leaves!


	2. Run From the Light: Part Two

**Flash**

Issue #2

"Run from the light – Part Two"

"Out of the way! Get out of the way!"

The doctor continued to order various residents of the hospital to quickly move out of the crash cart's path. Jay Garrick, who lay sprawled out on the cart, was barely stable and his breathing was slightly erratic. The emergency medical technicians that had arrived first on the scene had said it looked like a heart attack.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but you'll have to stay here," the doctor said over his shoulder. "We'll do everything we can, but you and the young man can't come beyond this point."

Jay's wife, Joan Garrick, reluctantly let go of the crash cart that her husband was riding on. Bart Allen squeezed her shoulder to try and alleviate some of the trauma but knew she hadn't even noticed him standing beside her.

Bart had raced over the scenario in his head a thousand times but he still was unsure of what had happened. They were about to eat a nice meal of Chinese food that Jay had picked up in Beijing earlier that day. Suddenly, Jay had doubled over, clutching his chest.

_They called it a heart attack_, thought Bart, _but do superheroes get heart attacks?_

"What's his status?" the doctor ordered more than asked.

"He's in VFIB," one of the accompanying nurses said.

"We're loosing him!" chimed in another one.

Several machines were hooked up to Jay that spewed out various bits of information on his condition. One squeaked along with his brain waves, another cheered about his lung capacity, and yet another one beeped with his pulse. As the team of medical professionals shot through another set of swinging doors, the last machine monitoring his blood pressure fell silent.

"Paddles!" the doctor yelled. "Give me the paddles! We're not waiting until we get to the operating room; I'm going to zap him here!"

One of the nurses handed the doctor the defibrillation paddles. They only took a moment to charge before the doctor slapped them on Jay's chest and yelled for everyone to move clear of the body.

Jay Garrick, an example for other heroes to follow, a man who had been saving lives over several decades, a husband to a loving wife…had no heartbeat.

---

"I'veanalyzedeveryaspectofyourlifeandIstillfindyouractionsboggling."

The lightning fast man dressed in the scarlet uniform of the Flash blurred across Heat Wave's field of vision. The once reformed villain was in a state of serious confusion. The Flash he was accustomed to had never been so violent. Blood was dripping from his mouth and he thought his left shoulder might have been dislocated.

"What was that?" Heat Wave asked over the roar of Flash's slipstream. "You're speaking way too damn fast! I can't understand you!"

Mick Rory, who had known that fire was his destiny since he was a child, unleashed a wave of superheated air molecules right in Flash's path. The shimmering wall broke apart at the amount of air pressure Flash forced through it and Heat Wave's defense diffused into nothing.

"I. Will. Talk. Slower," Flash said, irritation in his voice. "If. You. Decide. What. You. Are."

"Huh? I liked you better when I couldn't make out what you were saying. At least I could imagine you made sense."

Heat Wave sent out another volley of fire, surrounding himself this time with a wall of spiraling fire-towers. The flames licked at the sky while the base of the fire melted itself into the asphalt. Mick knew that anything would catch on fire if you just got it hot enough. He had experimented enough to know just how hot something had to be in order to combust.

As the flames flapped back and forth, Heat Wave saw Flash in between them, staring right through the blazing towers. The Scarlet Speedster wasn't exactly standing still…his image was split into several different versions of himself. If Heat Wave were to squint he would almost swear he saw exact, faded copies of Flash shimmering around him.

Flash brought his arms back and slapped them together in front of him. The resulting shockwave blew out the fire-towers, leaving Heat Wave completely vulnerable to the machinations of the fastest man alive.

"I. Profiled. You." Flash said, stepping forward and grabbing Heat Wave by his asbestos-lined collar. "You. Went. Legit. But. Decided. To. Return. To. Crime."

"My mind had been messed with!" Heat Wave defended. "Playing errand-boy for the FBI wasn't who I really was. With the Rogue War last year I found out the truth. I'm a Rogue, through and through. I know who I am these days, but you're acting more like a lunatic, even when you had that other costume. The one with the silver in it. The brain is a fragile thing--."

"Yes. I. Know. How. Fragile. A. Mind. Can. Be."

Flash ripped Heat Wave's patented weapon out of his hands faster than normal eyes could follow. Flipping it around in his hand, he palmed the handle upside down and pinched the trigger between his thumb and forefinger. By rubbing it in his fingers and building up the friction, the trigger started to disintegrate until it was completely gone. Flash then turned his attention back to Heat Wave, still grasped by the collar in his other hand.

"I'm a Rogue," Heat Wave proclaimed. "I'm respected in Iron Heights. Hell, I bet I even get a double-sized cell. So let's roll, Flash. I'm sure the Warden missed me."

"I. Never. Said. I. Was. Taking. You. To. Jail."

Flash reaffirmed his grip on Heat Wave's collar and lifted him off the ground. He started to run forward, reaching one hundred miles per hour in half a second. Heat Wave flailed in his grasp, but inertia had kicked in and he couldn't release himself. After another few seconds, the pair reached over three miles per hour and Heat Wave could barely raise his remaining good arm against the pressure.

"IprofiledalltheRogues," Flash hollered. "Youwereoneoftheworst. Youhadredeemedyourselfandhadevendoneheroicdeeds. Youhadmadeyourselfbetter. Youwereanexampleofwhatapersoncando."

Heat Wave focused his vision passed the increasingly unstable Flash and noticed they were now running across a large body of water. He smelled the salt and realized they must be running across the Pacific Ocean. Or it may have been the Atlantic Ocean. At the speeds they were reaching it could easily have been either one.

"Youhitrockbottomandremadeyourselfinabetterimage."

They rocketed passed an oil platform, the waves caused by Flash's slipstream crashing into the support pillars. Surprisingly, Flash looped around and started circling the oil rig instead of running deeper out into the ocean.

"Butthenyourenegedyourprogressionandwentbacktothewayyouwere."

Flash tightened the loop the pair was making around the oil platform, bringing them closer to the center where the black crude was pumped up from beneath the waves.

"You'reafailure. Youneedtoberebootedsoyoucanstartover."

Flash encircled the central pump and forced his fist into the metal with each rotation. He had broken a hole into the metal cylinder within seconds and the dark oil began spewing forth onto the water. When he decided enough had come out, Flash shot back out into the open water and the oil was pulled out with him, guided inside of his slipstream.

"MymindhadrecentlybeentamperedwithsoIunderstandwhathashappenedtoyou. HoweverIalsoknowit'snoexcuse. Thereisalwaysachoice."

Several miles away from the oil platform, Flash whipped around and changed his direction, causing the oil following him to splash into the water, resting on top of it and refusing to be diluted.

"Oh my god!" Heat Wave screamed. "What are you doing?"

"Considerthisyourbaptismbyfire."

Flash let go of Heat Wave's collar and tossed him into the center of the oil spill. The dark oil sloshed over him but he was able to tread the water resting beneath the mess, keeping his mouth open to breathe.

Heat Wave started to panic. The salty water crept into his nose and he thought he was going to drown. He was in the middle of the ocean and no one knew where he was. Even if he could fight against the weight of his asbestos suit and remain afloat in the water indefinitely, the oil would eventually drag him down. It was then he felt his vest and noticed something was missing. The pit of his stomach fell out as he realized exactly what Flash had meant by a baptism by fire.

"Everseewaterlightonfire?" Flash commented casually as he sped passed the desperate Rogue. Just as he ran close to the edge of the oil spill, Flash opened his hand and let the napalm grenade he had liberated from Heat Wave's vest fall from his hands. The pin he pulled caused it to detonate but he was three miles away at that point. Heat Wave, however, wasn't so lucky.

Workers on the oil platform eventually radioed the Coast Guard when they saw the giant pyre rise into the sky. The burning oil on top of the ocean emitted a large amount of smoke and was hard to miss.

Heat Wave found himself at the center of the inferno and for the first time since he was in diapers, he was afraid of fire.

---

"Move your big butt, lardo!"

Chester P. Runk, also known as the Chunk, had long since let go of his pride. Insults like the one just thrown no longer hurt him. The young boy who had said it was only lashing out at society or maybe rebelling against his parents…at least that's what Chunk told himself. Chunk weighed several hundred pounds and had been on the receiving end of many comments similar to the one just tossed at him.

"Wait…for your…turn….in line," Chunk replied. He always talked slow. It was something his best friend, Wally West, had found extremely irritating.

"I'm through waiting, tubs," the young kid shot back.

At the great disapproval of several people already waiting in the long line at the Department of Motor Vehicles, the sixteen year-old boy ran to the front of the line ahead of Chunk, who had been waddling slowly to the teller. Chunk thought impatience was something the latest generation seemed to savor.

Chunk had the power to make the kid disappear if he wanted…literally. Chunk possessed a singularity inside of his gut, which enabled him to transport anything he wanted inside a pocket dimension. He had abused his abilities throughout his life every time someone made a rude comment to him. That all changed when he met Wally West.

Chunk rolled his eyes as the youth stepped to the front of the line, right in from of him. What could he do? He knew what he wanted to do: pop the kid out of this dimension and _maybe_ bring him back in a few years. But that's not what Wally would have wanted.

"When…are you…coming…back, Wally?"

---

Whoever the League had set up to be Batman had decided to leave the satellite and Flash thought it was about time he made tracks, too. The Atom and the Elongated Man had tampered with all of their minds somehow so they were confused about their very identities and were easier to control. Flash's mind healed itself eventually, but it had taken time for it to happen. It was ironic, given that his powers were time-based.

Once his mind had sifted through enough of the fog, all he had to do in order to break their programming was timeshift back one nanosecond. A single fraction of a second was all it took to restore his consciousness. The funny part of it all was the League really didn't have to do much to adjust his mind. He didn't really consider himself a villain…more like a coach. Someone who pushed you to your limits. After he had "fixed" himself, he decided to stay in the Flash costume and work toward being an example for all other speedsters to follow.

His personal theory concerning heroes was that they needed to be broken down in order to stand stronger. What better way to do that than to be allied with the world's strongest ones?

He knew about the supposed Flash Legacy that reached hundreds of years into the future. Wally West may be long dead and forgotten but there would be others. Now that he was back in Keystone City, he would focus his attention on the only other person claiming the Flash mantle: Jay Garrick.

Before he located the elderly man and taught him his personal vision, however, Flash felt like he needed make a very special visit to a very special location. The Flash Museum still stood in shambles as the city was having problems getting financial backing for its renovation. Without a resident Flash living in the city, the people thought their tax dollars were better spent elsewhere. Construction equipment was strewn about the front lawn but no one manned the large machines.

"I'llremindthepeoplewhatatrueherois."

Just as all the flickering images of Flash put one step forward to enter the grounds, a large bolt of brilliant light touched down in front of what used to be the main entrance. The resulting display of loud thunder and focused light was enough to knock Flash off of his feet. The crimson dressed man skidded across the torn up concrete and smacked up against a knocked over statue of Barry Allen.

Wisps of smoke sprung out from ground zero as the light dissipated. A man, amazingly, not only survived the blast but was standing in the center of where it had been. Flash blinked his eyes and tried to make out who the lone figure was standing where the lightning had touched down. Whoever it was had long, black hair and pale skin. Blue energy rippled across his body as the smoke began to clear away.

It only took a split second for Flash to realize who the man was. He had spent what felt like eons studying those among the displays in the Flash Museum. Flash jumped to his feet and rushed to the man, his fists charged with the resulting kinetic energy. Before he knew what had happened, Flash was hitting the ground again, his head slamming against the side of a bulldozer. He was shell-shocked. He hadn't even seen the man move. He fast was he?

"You…you're not the Flash," the naked man said, blue energy rippling across his body. "What happened? Am I back?"

Flash looked up at the man from his spot on the ground and saw him raise his hand to his face, as if he were seeing it for the first time in a long while. The hand started to wave back and forth, faster and faster, almost uncontrollably. A moment later and the hand was a solid blur in the air, hovering in front of the man's face.

"You'reinthewrongtime," Flash said. "I'mtheFlashnowandyouaren'tfastenoughtostopme!"

"What's going on?" the man asked, moving one step closer to the red-clad speedster. "Last thing I remember I was pulled into the Speed Force and someone grabbed me…Wally? Where's Wally?"

"TheSpeedForceisdeandI'mgoingtokillyoutoo!"

Flash shot forward like a rocket, plowing into the dark-haired man. The man wavered on Flash's shoulder for a few steps before he backpedaled away from Flash at superspeed and leap-frogged over him. Flash was in shock yet again. How was he able to do that?

"I…know you!" the man exclaimed. "This must be before Wally was able to…you aren't the Flash! You're Hunter Zolomon, better known as Zoom!"

Zoom whipped his head around to toss an angry look at his newfound opponent. It was true, he had once been called Zoom and Hunter Zolomon before that…but now he was Flash and he wouldn't give up the title without a fight. More crimson images split off of Zoom as he began to vibrate faster and faster. Each image was a picosecond behind the last. Every one of them had a look of pure bloodlust in their eyes.

"IamtheFlash!"

Zoom raced forward, pouring on the speed as he approached his enemy. The long-haired man with pale skin stood completely still as Zoom charged closer. At the last moment before impact, the stranger closed his eyes and seemingly phased out of existence. Zoom was caught by surprise and his momentum was too great for him to put on the brakes and stop himself from crashing into what was left of a fountain. He sat up in a large puddle of water, droplets falling all around him from the now decimated sprinkle system.

"It's starting to come back to me," the man said, who had reappeared exactly where he had been standing. His entire body was vibrating back and forth at a speed even Zoom was amazed by.

The man was no longer naked. The blue energy swirling around him had begun to condense into something more solid. It covered his skin like a wetsuit, constantly flowing around his body and emitting a soft blue glow. The newly formed suit was smooth and void of any distinguishing mark, although what looked like goggles had formed over the man's eyes.

"I know what's happened to Wally West and I know what you're trying to do," the man said. "I'm hear to make things right."

The man's suit flashed a brilliant shade of blue just before the two masters of velocity left their footholds on the Earth and sprinted toward each other. Twin sonic booms erupted around them, shattering what glass remained in the Flash Museum.

---

Next issue: Who is this guy? Where's Wally? What about Jay?


	3. Run From the Light: Conclusion

**Flash**

Issue #3

"Run from the light – Conclusion"

Isaiah Washington sat on the front porch he and his father had built with their own two hands. Swaying back and forth in his grandfather's old rocking chair, Isaiah often came outside to relax in the last of the sun's rays. Too many cows needed milking, too many fences needed mending. He was worn out and he was only in his mid-fifties. If his Pappy were still alive…

"Isaiah!" called a harsh, feminine voice from inside the brittle house.

"Damn it," Isaiah silently cursed. His wife, unlike the old house they lived in, was very apparent. He always said she stood out in a crowd more than a bull surrounded by cows. Her voice contributed to it more than she would admit.

"Isaiah Robert Washington!" she hollered, walking out onto the porch. "Here you are. I should have guessed you would be lying around doing nothing."

"Now, Sarah, I just got down from the loft where I had to move all your old magazines around just to get to the feed. My back hurts from moving those damn things. You should have thrown all those out years ago."

"Don't you lecture me on being a packrat," she countered, placing her hands on her hips. "If we had a nickel for every Playb--"

**SHOOOOOOM!**

The rest of Sarah's sentence was overridden by the sudden roar whipping passed, which was quickly followed by hurricane level winds ripping into the flaking white paint still clinging to their house. Sarah was knocked off of her feet, falling back into the house and Isaiah was forced to sprawl onto the porch. The winds shoved against the side of the house, but the structure had lived through worse and it continued to stand tall.

"Oh, my stars and garters," Sarah said as she struggled to sit up in the front doorway. "What the devil was that?"

"Lord knows," Isaiah replied. "I haven't felt a breeze like that since the tornado that blew through here twenty years ago."

The elderly couple regained their composures, leaning over the porch railing to try and make some sense of it all. The only thing they were able to see was a giant cloud of dust that had been kicked up by some unseen force. Whatever it was that had caused the disturbance, it was headed further down the road and Isaiah prayed that it wouldn't come back.

----------

Mile after mile fell behind them. He had no idea how long they had been running, he just knew he couldn't give up. His legs were burning but he continued on. He had no choice. The man he was chasing was insane and would continue to harm others. Zoom had to be stopped.

"Ifyoucan'tkeepupthenyou'rewastingmytime!" Zoom yelled over his shoulder. The red-suited man was a dozen feet in front of him, running at over 1500 miles per hour. They had circled the globe at least once since this whole thing had begun. The would be going faster but sidestepping the Alps tends to slow a person down.

The man he was chasing was known as Hunter Zolomon, but he preferred to go by Zoom now. After a long set of unfortunate circumstances, he had gained superspeed and carried a large chip on his shoulder concerning Wally West, the Flash. It had been a year since Wally disappeared into the Speed Force, his friends unsure of what exactly had happened to him. They needn't worry about taking care of his family, however, as they had disappeared with him.

"Somethingtellsmeyourheadisn'tentirelyinthegame," Zoom continued to taunt from ahead. "Don'tinsultmebyignoringme."

Pieces of recent events slowly started to come back to him in his mind. He knew how he had gotten to Keystone City, appearing suddenly in front of the Flash Museum just as Zoom was prepared to take off. The surprise was that Zoom was wearing Wally's old costume, apparently masquerading as the Scarlet Speedster. If he remembered the historical files correctly, then he knew exactly why Zoom was dressed the way he was.

"Stillnotgoingtoreply?" Zoom asked. "Here'ssomethingtogetyourattentionbackontrack."

The dark-haired man giving chase dodged as quickly as he could as Zoom casually dropped a pile of bricks into his slipstream. The bricks sailed passed, barely missing his head and torso. If one of them had collided at the speed they were traveling…

"Knock it off, Zoom!" he yelled, the blue energy of his suit rippling all around him.

"Hespeaks!" Zoom countered. "FinallyIhaveyourattention!"

The blue man knew he had to get the upper hand in this chase. There was no way he would be able to catch up to Zoom simply by running; they were matched for speed. He would have to apply some tricks in order to force Zoom off his path.

_This is still so weird_, he thought. _He looks just like Wally in that suit. The "Justice League" must have already messed up his fragile mind. And if that's true, then this is before the Swar—AHH!_

Sudden pain ripped apart his thoughts, originating in his right leg. Gravel tore through his suit and into his flesh. He had lost his focus once again and Zoom had taken advantage of it by tossing a handful of rocks back into his slipstream. The damage was minimal and he could still run flat out…but it would seriously hurt when he did.

The pain helped him focus on the task at hand. With his mind returning back to its normal sharpness, so too did his reason for being sent. The world wanted to know where Wally West was and what exactly had happened to him. He had the answers, but first he had to stop Zoom. He was slightly out of his element in this time but he wasn't too worried.

After all, he was John Fox, the brilliant tachyon physicist.

Zoom led John around the Bering Strait for the second time, practically flying across the water. Every other step Zoom kicked one of his feet down into the water a little bit harder than usual, causing a massive wave to splash up right as John came close. John, nearly losing his balance, was able to avoid the giant waves but his proximity to Zoom grew larger with each dodge.

The spray of the saltwater dripped down his face. He had enough of this. The frustration began to build. If he couldn't get to Zoom, he would make Zoom come to him.

"I know all about you, Zoloman!" John called out. They were back on land again so he didn't have to worry about getting sea spray in his mouth when he tried to talk. "I know you're a fraud! I know the only reason you're wearing that suit is because someone else put you in it!"

"Liar!" Zoom retorted. The scarlet pretender's image had been jumping back and forth during the entire chase but for some reason it seemed a bit more clear now, as if he wasn't concentrating on his speed quite as much. "IamtheFlashnow!"

"You're a glorified charlatan that history has forgotten!" John expounded upon the sentence by twirling his arm fast enough to create a vortex of condensed air aimed at Zoom, nearly knocking him off his feet. The attack did force Zoom to miss a few steps and he lost his pace for a split-second, enough time for John to close the gap between them. Side by the side, the runners shot across the frozen wastes of Alaska.

John's fist flew at over 1,000 miles per hour at Zoom's head, the cushioning air doing whatever it could to get out of the way. Zoom ducked under pile driver punch at the last moment and shot his knee up into John's abdomen without breaking his stride. The twisted "hero" heard a satisfying _crack!_ as John buckled over in sudden pain.

"Youhavetobebetterthanthat!" Zoom mocked. John began to fall behind again but the madman reached over and grabbed his neck, forcing him to keep up. Zoom shifted his weight just enough that the awesome momentum the pair had developed swung John around in the air, guided by the grasp Zoom had on his neck. At the apex of the swing, Zoom let go and sent John skidding across the hard, jagged ice.

His blue suit was made up of condensed Speed Force energy, a gift from his benefactor. It covered his entire body except for the top of his head where his black hair flapped freely. It was a very slick and malleable substance, but it was also tough enough to withstand the harshness of the Alaskan environment. If John had been wearing a regular costume his skin would be covered in abrasions and the fight would probably have been over. Luckily, the suit not only protected him but it also helped keep his energy up. Streamlining one of the greatest power sources ever tended to help with a second wind.

Picking himself up, John rocketed forward again toward his prey. Zoom's trail headed south, which was easy enough to follow from the path his friction had melted through the ice. Steam billowed up from the ground all around John as he pushed himself harder to catch up with Zoom.

Taking down Zoom was proving more difficult than he had thought. Still, he had specifically been chosen for this task and he planned on coming out on top. Even with the suit he was matched for speed with Zoom, so that meant he had to outthink his opponent.

The problem was, even though he knew that he had been hand picked for this mission, he really didn't know why. His knowledge of the past was limited to the big events and minor details like motivations escaped him.

Out of no where, a brick wall erected right in front of John. He barely had enough time to shove his weight back so he could run straight up the wall, which only reached twenty feet straight up. He was already up and over the wall before he realized what was happening.

**WHAM!**

John went skidding to a halt across the pavement, bumping up against a sign that read "Welcome to Montreal!" He was more shaken up by the fact he had fallen for such an obvious trick than he was the 2x4 he had just been slugged with.

"Wallsaregreatobstacles!" Zoom said, grimacing. He was still holding the 2x4 in his hand even though it had snapped in half after being used as a baseball bat. "Especiallywhentheykeepyoufromseeingwhat'sontheotherside!"

_This is ridiculous_, John thought as he gritted his teeth. _If Zoom is so much better than me, why the hell was I brought here? What can I possibly do to take down an insane man like Hunter Zolomon? It would have been nice if my benefactor had given me at least a clue as to what's expected of me here. I'm running out of time…_

- DOOONNG! DOOONNG! -

The almost overbearing noise of the giant clock on top of city hall chimed away, signaling the hour. Zoom stepped forward but was shocked to see John run in the opposite direction.

"Retreating?" Zoom asked, pleased with himself. Another hero had seemingly been taught an important at his hands. "Howdoyouexpecttostopmeifyoukeeprunningaway?"

Keep telling yourself that, loudmouth. Before you know it I'll have you broken down in a heap at my feet and you won't even know what hit you. I can't believe I didn't realize this sooner! Chalk it up to the wear and tear of a worldwide pursuit.

John rushed out of Zoom's field of vision, leaving the madman behind by himself. His arrogance brimmed at the forefront of his psyche, pleased with himself to no end. Before long he would take care of that decrepit Jay Garrick and then find the Allen boy. Once they were out of the way he would be able to shake the very foundations of the planet.

"Onlythosefittoleadandsurvivewillbeleft!" Zoom cried out, arching his back in defiance. "Ishallbethejudge!"

Whatever perverse nature had a grasp on Zoom's mind, it was refusing to let go. The Justice League's meddling had done more damage to Zoom than good, even though they had only barely grazed his psyche. Laughter emitted at hypersonic speeds, shattering a nearby window. Zoom's eyes glazed over with a sudden rush of power, like he felt invincible. There was no one to stop him.

"Judgejuryexecutioner! Youhavebeenweighedandmeasured and you have…been…found…wanting? What the hell is going on? What happened?" Zoom's voice rose in first agitation and then fear. He was slowing down. Somehow, he was being _forced_ to slow down.

"Zoom!" John called out from behind the villain. "I'm back! And guess what…you're finished." The blue energy of his suit rippled around his thin body. His black hair lazily drifted in the wind while a smile formed across his face. In his hands he held the key to Zoom's defeat.

"What…what did you do?" Zoom roared. His tone was more accusatory then questioning. Anger rose up from within him as froth began to form at his mouth.

"I admit I'm slightly ashamed I didn't figure this out earlier. The ringing clock finally jump-started my brain into thinking like a scientist again. Good job on keeping me distracted. This little device here is something I just whipped up with a little help from STAR Labs. Feel like there's a giant weight on your back now? Like you're moving through a big bowl of Jell-O?"

Zoom finally noticed what John was referring to. It was like time had become dense around him somehow. He could barely take a single step forward let alone rush off at 700 miles per hour.

"From the look on your face I guess you can feel it," said John. He dipped his chin to motion at the sterling white contraption in his hand that was pointed at Zoom. "This device emits high-level tachyons of a very specific frequency. It's loosely based on these time gauntlets I used to carry around. I just projected a time bubble around you and tweaked it so your own time based powers become inert. It's not permanent but it will hold you long enough for the authorities to get here. It shouldn't be long, by the way. When I swung by STAR Labs to build this I also had them notify Checkmate to come pick you up."

Zoom couldn't even lift his hand to wipe the drool off of his mouth. He was furious but had no way of exacting his vengeance. He was trapped and defeated. The last several months of his life were now all a waste. He would have to start over. Everything he had gone through was now all for nothing.

"Now that you're temporally running on empty," John said, letting the device fall to the ground. "I can finally pay you back for slashing me with that extension cord back in Madrid."

The perfect target, Zoom was forced to watch the fast approach of John's cocked right fist. He couldn't even close his eyes before the impact.

----------

"I just don't know what to do…" Joan Garrick sobbed. Her tears had long since smudged her makeup, dribbling down into her hands. She sat in the waiting room at the hospital they had brought her husband to, still unsure of his condition. Bart Allen sat beside her to try and offer some type of reassurance, but the truth was he was scared for Jay's life.

"He's taken on Gorilla Grodd, Mrs. Garrick," Bart said. "He's beaten all of the Rogues a dozen times over. I once saw him stick Weather Wizard's wand up Mirror Master's nose. He can beat this." He hoped his words were helping but the reality was he couldn't possibly understand what she was going through.

"This isn't…" she began, but the tears filled up her eyes again and she couldn't continue.

It seemed like they had been waiting for hours since the doctors had taken Jay into the operating room. They initially said he had suffered a heart attack but then they started talking about exploratory surgery. Jay's body and brain wave activity wasn't how it should be and they wanted to run various tests to cross out certain illnesses. Joan feared the worst…her adventuring husband may be dying only yards from her and there wasn't a single thing she could do about it. On top of it all, the sterile smell of the hallways was starting to get to her.

"I need some fresh air," she finally murmured.

Joan left Bart behind in the waiting room. Since taking him in, Bart had felt like a grandson to them but right now she just needed to be alone…she just needed to think. She had been through a lot with Jay over the decades, through many sleepless nights wondering where he was. She knew he was off fighting some maniac trying to blow up the city and it scared her to no end. She never knew if he was coming home or not.

This time, however, it was different.

Before Jay had been off fighting some external problem. He might come home bruised but he would always come home. This time it was an internal struggle that Jay's speed couldn't help him prevail over. It had happened so suddenly. Each night that he was away fighting an evil menace she waited for him on the porch. When she felt that rush of wind around her she knew he had come back to her. She wondered if she would ever feel that rush again.

Bart was at the age where he could move on easily. He wasn't set in his ways and dependant on another person like she was. It was nice to reassure her friends that she would be alright and that she could live on her own…but now that the time may have actually come…

The wind rushed around her, kicking up stray pieces of paper lying on the ground outside of the emergency room. For a brief moment the tragedy she had been facing alone vanished. Out of the corner of her eye she caught a glimpse of a large blur rocketing passed her. The tears stopped for just the slightest moment as she hoped beyond hope.

"Joan Garrick?" a man asked. It was the blur, standing beside her now. The gathered hope collapsed just as quickly as it had been built.

"Yes…" she said, turning to face him. "Do I…know you?"

"My name is John Fox," he replied. He was taller then she was, even taller than Jay. His hair was dark and his clothes were baggy and barely fit at all. It looked like he had borrowed the clothes at the last second from a friend. "I've come to try and help your husband."

Joan had no idea why she should even think about trusting this man. First of all, he was obviously a speedster, and according to what Jay had told her the Speed Force had disappeared along with Wally. That meant he probably wasn't an associate of her husband's. Second, the man looked ragged and worn down. He didn't look like he could help a fly let alone Jay.

"How could you possibly help him?"

"I know what happened to him," the man said. It almost sounded like he was pleading. "When I was sent back to this time I believe the resulting shock had a terrible effect on your husband, Mrs. Garrick. I was told that maybe I could--"

"I'm sorry," she cut him off. "What are you talking about? Sent by whom? Who told you where Jay was and that you could even have a chance of helping him?" She hadn't meant to but she was starting to yell. The frustration of not being able to do anything for the last few hours had finally found a way to vent.

"I was sent by Wally West."

Her stomach sunk into the pit of her soul. Wally. This man was claiming to know Wally. Even more than that, he had been sent by him for some reason. Maybe to help Jay.

"I…I believe you." The words surprised her as she said them. Maybe she felt desperate at this point but she knew her options were limited. Looking into the man's eyes, she thought she saw a hint of recognition. "What do you need?"

"Just to see him," John said. "Wally told me what how I can help. Can you take me to him?"

"He's in surgery right now. They're trying to figure out what's wrong with him."

"Alright," John said. He looked uneasy and impatient. It certainly appeared like he was concerned for her husband's health. "As soon as he's out of the operating room I'll see what I can do."

Neither of them spoke for a moment as they were unsure of what to say. John Fox tried to understand the pain she must be going through and he prayed he wasn't setting her up only to later let her down. Joan Garrick didn't know if she even had total faith in him. She just had hope. Like most things in her life since she had married Jay, this was happening so fast.

"Tell me what happened to Wally," she said. "Is he going to be okay? Where are Linda and the twins?"

John took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. He knew he would have to talk about it sooner or later…he just didn't think it would be now. He wasn't hiding anything he just felt uncomfortable given the history that he and Wally shared. Not everyone might believe him.

"Wally…Wally and his family are gone. I'll try and explain it all but you have to understand there are gaps in even my own knowledge of the situation…"

----------

Next issue: The truth about Wally's fate is finally revealed! Plus, Jay Garrick's life hangs in the balance.


	4. Time Trippin'

**Flash**

**Issue #4**

"**Time-trippin'**"

My name is John Fox. I'm the fastest man alive.

At least…I _sort_ of am. It's a long story.

You might say I'm a man who ran out of time. Literally. I grew up in the 27th century and eventually fell into a job as a tachyon physicist. Don't get me wrong, I know that sounds fancy in the 21st century, but in my time? Not so glamorous. I spent a lot of time in my lab working on various projects.

One day, a villain named Manfred Mota came along and totally wrecked a bunch of stuff. I could give you more specific details but the point is there was a bad guy packing some serious power going nuts and there weren't any heroes around to stop him. I was sent back in time to grab the Flashes who had defeated him in the past (your time) but I was unable to recruit anyone. On the return trip, however, I was imbued with speed powers of my very own. I stumbled around a bit but I eventually came out on top and saved the day.

Big hero, right? Lots of prizes and women! Glory for all!

Hardly. Since my return, giant leaps in the advancement of a robotic police force called Speed Metal took over the hero gig. These superfast tin cans zipped around the city while I was reduced to guarding the Time Institute. My chances of being a hero were dead. I was a security guard and nothing more.

In retrospect it really wasn't that bad. I had a couple of random adventures (nothing serious worth mentioning) and I was actually getting paid to protect the Institute. I could continue my research there and be left alone. It was actually a pretty sweet setup. I didn't see it that way at the time, though. I just wanted to be a hero like I had seen on the old holovids.

That's when I bumped into Wally West. Nice guy and one of the biggest heroes of his time. You would be surprised of the things he could do. Well…_can_ do. He's not dead, regardless of what people have been saying for the last year. More on that later, though. Don't worry, we'll catch up.

Wally was doing a little time-vaulting of his own and he landed right next to me. We didn't exactly hit it off. We weren't enemies or anything, but we weren't exactly brothers, either. Anyway, I got to thinking. I remembered that the world was destined to undergo a second Ice Age and that the Flash was nowhere to be seen during the crisis. So, I made a decision. I was going to go back in time and take Wally's place. I would become a hero and try and alter the past to pull humanity out of one of its darkest hours.

Things didn't go as planned.

You have to understand that a lot of Earth's history was lost during a major catastrophe. As a result, I only have a rudimentary knowledge of what happened before my own time. Mostly the big events are what stick out (I know quite a few Flash facts, too) but I couldn't tell you who won the 2014 World Series. All I knew was that there was going to be a worldwide threat and there was no Flash to stop it.

By going back in time I ended up severely screwing over Wally. He had just gone through a rather intense battle with a guy named Savitar and had been forced to enter the Speed Force. He won but he still needed to find his way home. The love of his life, Linda Park, was his beacon and the only thing that enabled him to return from the Speed Force without missing his mark. When I showed up and planted a big wet one on Linda (I know, I'm an idiot), Wally's link to her was messed up and his beacon went bye-bye.

I couldn't hack it as the Flash in the 21st century and Wally eventually came back. Needless to say; he was pretty pissed. To make things worse, Speed Metal came looking for me since I sort of made my initial time-jump illegally. Wally helped me escape them but I knew it was only a matter of time before they sent more after me. So, I pulled up my pants, tightened my bootstraps, and took off into the timestream to find my fortune.

I made a couple of pit stops in the 30th and 41st centuries but mainly I was just trying to stay one step ahead of Speed Metal. It was pretty exhausting being a fugitive. Then that's when it happened: Wally, the guy I screwed over, saved my life again.

I had just left Speed Metal and the year 4113 behind me when I felt a huge tug in the Speed Force. It was like a shockwave had been sent rippling through and it hurt like hell. I suddenly found myself totally powerless, unable to move as fast as I had been. What made matters worse is this happened while I was jogging through the timestream. I sort of fell off track and started ricocheting off of the confines of space/time. Things got seriously freaky for a while as my perceptions of reality were drastically manipulated by the ambient time/speed energies.

I felt my consciousness begin to slip away. It was horrifying. It was like a rock climber slowly loosing his grip. You know you're about to fall to your death and there's nothing you can do to save yourself. All you can really do is pray.

Then I felt something brush against my mind. It was a small tingling at first but it quickly sharpened into something more concrete. I hadn't even realized I was holding my eyes shut in terror but then I opened them and boy was I surprised.

Among the swirling lights of the timestream was a single, red thread of condensed energy. I reached out and grabbed it, slightly surprised that I could actually feel it in my hands. Before I knew what was happening, I was ripped out of the timestream and thrown into some kind of pocket dimension. At least, that's what I thought it was at the time.

Light was completely absent from this place. There was absolutely nothing to be found anywhere. I was floating in a dark void that I can only compare to space, the only difference being that I wasn't immediately killed from a vacuum. The emptiness loomed all around me, except for one, single, solitary thing.

Wally West, glowing bright enough to light a city block.

There he floated, right in front of me. My first thought was some supervillain had gotten the better of us but Wally quickly told me what had happened. A year ago, there had once again been a Crisis and one of the key people involved was a kid named Superboy Prime. Somehow, Wally had pulled this Superboy Prime into the Speed Force in an effort to halt his destruction. He had to team up with two other classic speedsters, Jay Garrick and Bart Allen, in order to hold the rogue teenager at bay within the confines of the Speed Force. Jay apparently bounced out right away and Bart had been rapidly aged yet again. Wally struggled to hold Superboy Prime at bay but eventually he escaped.

Wally, however, had exerted so much energy that he was now trapped in the Speed Force. Wally explained to me that the Force's interaction with Superboy Prime, a being who reeked of extradimensional energy, had somehow changed it. The Force no longer could contain itself on one dimensional wavelength and it threatened to cross over into our plane and vaporize anything it touched. It would have killed us all, sweeping across even the timestream, making all of creation null and void. The only thing holding it back was Wally.

Wally had absorbed the entire Speed Force. He now _was_ the Speed Force. It had been a constant struggle for him to keep the Force from slipping out and destroying everything. That was why my speed had left me; Wally had to recall it or else I would have been a conduit for the Speed Force to leak out of. As soon as he did that, however, he felt my consciousness touch his own (my guess is my being in the timestream had something to do with it). He reached out and tried to grasp my consciousness much in the same way I had grabbed onto his. We sort of saved each other, I suppose.

You see, Wally's beacon, Linda, was gone. He had no idea where he was. But by using me as a sort of grounding wire, he finally had control of the Speed Force. The dark void we were floating in? That's what was left of the Speed Force realm after he had absorbed it.

So, there we were. Two guys, one of whom had no real reason to like the other, sitting in a black nothingness. I was completely powerless and Wally was a god. Without me to ground him, though, the Speed Force would lash out and destroy the universe. We were sort of unsure about what step to take next.

We floated there and debated a few things, like what to do next. We liked the idea of keeping the universe from being destroyed, but sitting in empty space isn't the last thing I want to do before I die. Plus, we didn't even know how long I could survive there. If I keeled over from lack of nourishment the Speed Force would probably run rampant.

We reached a conclusion. Wally would send me back to Earth, to his time, and I would find a solution to the problem. I would remain his grounding wire and funnel the Speed Force out of him so that he wouldn't become exhausted from the strain again. There was just one problem.

When Wally yanked me back from the timestream, a little piece of it apparently came along with me. Fragments of chronal energy had mingled with the Force and Wally was feeling the effects of it, which was apparently being augmented by someone in the 21st century. Surprise, surprise; it was Zoom. When the chronal energy mixed with the Speed Force, Zoom (whose powers are time-based) latched onto the Force ever-so-slightly. It was hypothetically possible for Zoom to figure out how to gain access to the Speed Force and get to Wally, something I know he would love to do. The point: Zoom had to be taken down.

Thus, Wally dramatically placed me right in front of Zoom at the Flash Museum. Since I was channeling the Force directly through Wally, I didn't have much of a problem keeping up with Zoom (even though my mind was a bit foggy after being shipped in a bolt of lightning). He had the edge in velocity, but if he had been aware how close he was to some serious power there could have been hell to pay. Since the transportation from the timestream to Wally destroyed my costume and time gauntlets, Wally provided me with a suit comprised of Speed Force energy. He said he once used something like it and it might take some getting used to. Mine was blue (my favorite color).

After swiping some clothes from a laudromat, I headed to the first place I thought to look for help in Wally's city: the Garrick's house. Nobody was home, though. I checked out a newspaper and saw that Jay had suffered a heart attack and was still in the hospital. According to the paper, Jay had the heart attack right about the time I had popped back into this timeline. Perfect. I was indirectly responsible for this. Or at least, I thought I was. My sudden appearance here must have been the cause. It couldn't have been a coincidence.

I raced over to find Mrs. Garrick standing in front of the emergency room entrance, slightly taken aback by my arrival. I had forgotten that the only speedster left in this town was her husband. I probably should have thought things through a little better before rushing up to her.

She took me inside to where Bart was waiting and I started to answer all of their questions, telling them all about Wally, the Speed Force, and Zoom. I left out the part where I could be responsible for Jay's condition. That pretty much brings us up to where we are now.

Bart was sitting across from me in the waiting room with a sad look on his face. I can only imagine what he must have gone through. Wally was like a big brother to him. To lose that ..well, I really just can't imagine. Now to hear he might be alive? Inconceivable.

"I know this is a lot to handle right now," I told them. Joan looked up at me with something in her eyes. Was it hope? "I promise that Wally is going to be okay. We'll figure a way out of this jam."

"Is there anything you can do for Jay?" Joan asked me. Wow. I really didn't know how to answer that.

"What exactly happened to him? The paper didn't give a lot of details." If I was going to try the hero thing again this was the best place to start. Jay was a good man and he still had a place in history. I couldn't let this be the end for him.

"He had just ran back from Asia," she explained. "We were about to eat dinner when he sort of ..just .." She started to sob and I put my arm around her. I've never even had a girlfriend for longer than seven days and her husband for the better part of fifty years was near death. She must be dying inside. "I'm sorry. I-I'm okay. Anyway ..that's when Jay had the heart attack. He clutched his chest and hit the floor. It just happened so fast! I was so scared."

I caught sight of a man in green hospital scrubs walking our way. The mask he wore to keep from letting germs into the operating room was pulled down from his face. There was blood staining the front of his otherwise clean scrubs. Not a good sign.

"Mrs. Garrick," he said as he approached. "Might I have a word with you?"

"What is it? Is Jay alright?" The words seemed to hang in her throat. I wasn't quite looking forward to the prognosis, either.

"Your husband is stable for the moment," the doctor answered. "We performed the exploratory surgery but it didn't yield many results. According to your husband's brainwave activity, he appears to be in a coma. However, he's showing physical signs of response, like moving his fingers when they're pricked. That's uncharacteristic of someone in a coma. Your husband is in excellent health, Mrs. Garrick. We found no reason for the heart attack to have occurred."

"So, we're back where we started?" she asked.

"We're running more tests," the doctor replied, "but I'm afraid we are back to square one. He's been taken back to his room. You can see him if you like."

Joan slid back in her seat, the weight of the situation obviously getting to her. For some reason I felt guilty that my chosen field of expertise wasn't medical. I wanted to help but I had no idea how. My knowledge of 27th century medical advancements was severely limited.

The doctor, a moot expression on his face, turned to leave. I suppose someone like him has to deliver news like this all the time. I don't know which is worse: delivering bad messages or becoming emotionless like that.

"Do you want us to take you to him?" Bart asked. It was the first thing he had said in a long time.

"Yes," she whispered. "Yes we should go."

Making our way down the hall, we finally arrived at Jay's room. It was near the end of the hospital wing, cordoned off from most of the other patients. Jay had a room all to himself, which was mostly filled with various monitors chirping away and that antiseptic smell that is impossible to get away from in a hospital.

There he laid, motionless. His chest moved up and down, showing that he could still breathe under his own power. His eyes were closed and it almost looked like he was sleeping. In a sense, I suppose he was. We gathered around him, unsure of what to do. Joan looked like she was going to start crying again any second now and Bart ..well, Bart just had this look on his face like he was ready to give up.

"He looks so peaceful," Joan stated. "Just like when I get up in the middle of the night for a glass of milk." She set her hand down on Jay's shoulder to search for some type of comfort from her comatose husband.

"He's going to pull through," Bart said, even though the words seemed to catch in his throat. "He's the Flash. He _has_ to pull through."

"He shouldn't be experiencing any pain," I tried to offer. I didn't know what else to do so I put my hand on top of hers, resting there above Jay's left shoulder. "At the very least, he is comfortable."

"I know you're trying to help, John," she replied somberly. "But I think I just need to be alone with him for now. It's just ..it's hard. I don't know the words to explain it. I feel cold and scared."

**Zzzap!**

"Holy--!" I screamed out. Joan had pulled her hand out from under mine to wrap around her torso. I just let my hand fall onto Jay's shoulder but as soon as I touched him I felt some kind of shock run up my spine. I yanked my hand back, surprise obviously showing on my face.

"What was that?" Bart asked, his eyes opening wide. "I felt that! When you touched him, I felt something!"

"I-I'm not sure," I answered. It didn't really hurt; I had pulled my hand back out of reflex. When I touched Jay it felt like there some sort of ..connection?

"What is it?" Joan asked. "What happened?"

"I think.." I mumbled, allowing my voice to fade out as I thought. I was sure of it now. I had definitely felt some type of connection click into place when I touched Jay. It felt like an electrical socket had been plugged in, only there was a hell of a lot more power behind it. I reached out with my hand again and held it over Jay's forehead, hesitating. I didn't know if I should try it again or not, but something felt right about it. I looked up into Bart's eyes to see if he had any reservations. He just silently nodded and steadied himself by grabbing the railings on the side of the bed.

I closed my eyes and lowered my hand onto Jay's forehead and as soon as I touched his skin, the invisible spark of energy ignited again. My gut reaction was to pull away again but I held on and applied a small amount of pressure. The connection bounced around for a moment but then it snapped into place and I was opened up to something I hadn't expected.

I felt energy rushing around in my psyche, pouring down my arm and into Jay's forehead. I thought I would feel exhausted but the energy just kept flowing from what seemed like an infinite source. Then my thoughts finally came together and I figured it out: the source _was_ infinite. It was the Speed Force, flowing through me and into Jay. I could feel Jay's consciousness begin to bubble up from underneath the energy. It was like the energy had scraped away whatever was keeping Jay's mind down.

I pulled my hand back and opened my eyes. I stared at Bart who looked like he had just been hit by lightning. "That was the Speed Force," he said, "I felt it. You just--"

"Joan?" groaned Jay from on the bed. His eyes opened up and he looked at his wife, a small smile forming on his lips.

She broke out in tears of joy as she rushed back to her husband's side and fell onto him, wrapping her arms around his chest. Jay, through what looked like great strain, lifted his right hand and placed it on her head, holding her against him.

"Oh, Jay!" she proclaimed as her tears spotted the bed sheet covering him. "You've come back to me!"

---------------

The doctors verified it: Jay was going to be okay. They were baffled on what exactly had happened, and I'll have to admit, I sort of was, too. Bart and I left the happy couple to themselves so they could reconnect. The hospital wanted to keep Jay overnight for observation before releasing him, so Bart and I stepped outside to find our way back to the Garrick's house to spend the night. Joan, despite Jay's protestations, refused to leave. It was cute, actually.

"So," Bart began as we walked down the street, "what exactly happened back there?"

"You know how I told you I'm a conduit for the Speed Force right now?" I looked over to him and he nodded in understanding. Here we go; I hope he doesn't hate me. "I think that when I came back the resulting shock of the Force being in this dimension again was too much for Jay's system to handle. I think I kind of, uh, caused his heart attack."

"Oh." Bart walked beside me in silence. I know I wasn't directly responsible for hurting one of the people he looked up to most in the world, but it still felt like crap to know I was involved at all. "Yeah, I felt something too when he collapsed. Is he powered back up now?"

"No, I don't think so. When I touched his forehead I felt the Speed Force rush out of me and into him. He's still got his metagene, of course, but I think it just fixed whatever the problem was and I think Wally's hand was guiding it."

"How do you mean?" Bart asked.

"Well, Wally _is_ the Speed Force now," I explained. "I felt the energy fill up Jay's mind and sift through it, like somebody was controlling it. It couldn't be anybody _but_ Wally."

"Can you talk to Wally? Do you know when he's coming back?" The sparkle of hope was in Bart's eye again like before. He really cares about Wally, like family. They've been through a lot together.

"No, sorry. It doesn't work like that. I'm grounding him and he's funneling power into me but I can't really communicate with him. First thing tomorrow, though, I'm going to try and look for some help to try and get Wally out of this predicament."

"Why don't you just hit up your Justice Legion A friends for help?" Bart mentioned casually. "They were some pretty powerful guys."

"Who?" I've heard of the Justice League, the Justice Society, the Justice Triune ..never a Justice Legion. "Who are they?"

"Seriously?" Bart asked, stopping beside me on the street (we had gone about a block from the hospital). "Oh. Maybe you haven't gone that far in the future yet. Nevermind. Time travel can get really confusing."

"Yeah, it gives me a headache sometimes thinking about the things I've done in the past but haven't gotten to in the future yet," I replied. Whatever he was talking about I'm sure I would figure out eventually. Until then, I would rather not know. I turned back to walking done the street and Bart did a little hop-step to fall back in line with me.

"So, you're directly linked to the Wally Force now, right?"

"Heh," I chuckled. "Something like that, yeah."

"So, you're kind of like the Speed Force's avatar now, huh?"

I hadn't thought about it that way. I guess I sort of was. As far as I knew no one else on the planet was being powered by the Force anymore. It was just me. Kind of intimidating to think of it like that. "I suppose I am, Bart. But, you know, I've been thinking. Maybe we could reconnect you with it like I did with Jay, only make it permanent."

Bart looked straight ahead at the street stretching further than we could see. I didn't realize he would have to think about it. I thought he would jump at the chance to be a hero again. I know I would.

"I haven't moved faster then everybody else for the last year," Bart said. "For the longest time I was desperate to get back into that life again. I felt like I had been cut off from my friends even though Robin told me there's always a place for me in Titans Tower. I saw him the other day, you know? Robin I mean. He said something that got me thinking."

"What did he say?" I was surprised to hear Bart talk like this. I honestly didn't know what to make of it.

"He said that I should enjoy the vacation and get out there to experience the world as different person. I think he might be right. My entire life has been a blur, John. As soon as I took my first breath I was off and running, literally."

"I'm not sure what to say, Bart. I'm proud of you, I know that, and I think Wally would be, too."

"I'm not giving up," Bart commented, and I knew he meant it. There was a taste of stern resignation in his voice. "I'll get back in the game someday, just not today. Don't count me out just yet."

"Well when you do decide to get back in the game," I began with a smile on my face (I had been waiting for a set up like this), "maybe I can hook you up with one of these."

Bart stopped to look back over his shoulder at me to see what I was talking about. I concentrated and the old clothes I had yanked from the laundromat faded away into my blue Speed Force suit. The solidified energy swirled around me and covered my entire body except for the top of my head where my black hair stuck out (lenses had formed around my eyes so I could see).

"Wow!" Bart exclaimed. "That's just like the suit Wally made when he tried to compensate for his broken legs a couple years ago! What's with the blue, though?"

"Blue is my favorite color," I defended. "No good, huh?"

"Traditionally the Flash always has a red uniform."

"Oh," I said, mimicking Bart from before. That was something else I had let slip by me. I didn't intend to become the Flash again. I just came back to get everything figured out with Wally and then I would be on my way, but Jay was going to be recuperating for awhile and Bart wasn't ready for the mantle. Zoom had done a lot of damage to the Flash's reputation (since the public was unaware of who it really was in that crimson suit).

I closed my eyes and concentrated on the fabric of the Speed Force costume. The blue color of it grew darker and then shifted over to purple as I tried to bend the energy to my will. Finally, the color turned a deep crimson and I opened my eyes. A string of yellow energy reached from my left shoulder to my right hip, crossing my chest. The single string vibrated back and forth as it crackled with energy.

"The lightning is a nice touch," Bart commented. "Traditional, but New Age. I like it. I'm not sold on the totally covered face but it works for you."

I wasn't sure where I was going to start looking for help with Wally, but now that I had adjusted the suit everything seemed slightly better. It felt like I was doing the right thing. Maybe it was Wally poking around inside my head but I swear I felt like the Speed Force approved.

"Looks like I'll be doing the hero thing full-time again," I said.

---------------

**FLASH FACTS**

Whew!

Finally we've found out the secret of Wally West's disappearance and the fate of the Speed Force. It seems like it's been a very long journey to get to this point. When I found out what the real DC was doing with the Flash legacy, I cringed. I love the character, I'm a huge fan, Bart Allen is great. I'm just not ready for him to be the next Flash yet. There's still a lot of stories left in Wally West and I feel like whatever they do with Bart is a rehash of Wally's earliest experiences in the crimson uniform.

That being said, why did I pick John Fox for my Flash series? The answer: he's hardly used anymore and I feel like there is a lot of ground to cover with his character. You'll see what I mean in the coming issues.

Next issue: New Genesis!


	5. Highway to Heaven

**Flash**

Issue #5

"Highway to Heaven"

"This is the weirdest thing I've ever experienced," I mumbled to no one in particular.

My name is John Fox and I'm the fastest man alive. You might call me the Flash but that would be an insult to everyone else that's held the name before me. Currently I'm in between the folds of reality, the weird experience being attributed to the archaic teleporter I'm using. I've slipped through the timestream using nothing but my own two legs and _this_ is what tosses my stomach for a loop.

"Just relax," Bart Allen said. "I know it makes you feel funky but just chill and you'll be fine."

After tossing Zoom into a Star Labs holding cell and making sure Jay Garrick would be doing okay, Bart and I had a long talk about what I should do next. Wally was fueling my powers and I was perfectly fine, but he wasn't doing so well. Even though I was anchoring him the power of the Speed Force was keeping him from returning to us. He _was_ the Speed Force now and it was taxing him greatly. I needed to figure out how to free him before something happened. I was still a relative stranger in this timeline but Bart was a trusted member of the Teen Titans…at least he used to be. Thankfully they let us come in to use their stuff.

Titans Tower was rather impressive, especially for a bunch of kids. Granted, some of them were a lot older then the rest, but most of the group was made up of teenagers that were dying to get out into the super-world and flex their muscles. During my time travels, I found out that eventually EarthGov will pass a bill banning underage superheroes. The Teen Titans, as you may have guessed, will be at the center of that debate. Until then, the team seems to be doing great, especially under the tutelage of the man called Cyborg.

"Funky is how you describe sushi," I replied. "Having my molecules rearranged by this primitive technology is more like torture."

"Primitive?" Cyborg asked from behind Bart. He was the only one home when we came knocking, and after explaining what we wanted to do, he graciously let us into his lab. "This is quality stuff you're jacked into. How far in the future did you say you were from?"

"Too far."

"Right," he replied, reaching passed Bart and to the teleporter console. "According to what I'm reading here there are tachyons seeping off of you like crazy and that's why you're feeling some discomfort in the transporter beam. Once the computer sorts it all out you'll be on your way."

I hoped it would be sooner than later. Even with my protective suit made up of condensed Speed Force energy I still felt the pangs of electricity vaulting through my nervous system. This floor of the Tower was where Cyborg said he did most of his work, whatever that entailed. Bart assured me that if anyone could get me to where I needed to be, it was the Titans. Given the pain I was currently experiencing I wasn't exactly convinced yet.

"How do you even know where the coordinates are?" I asked. It almost sounded like I was trying to talk myself out of doing this.

"When the Titans gained access to some of the tech leftover from the Watchtower," Cyborg explained, "there weren't many coordinates we _didn't_ have."

There weren't many people that could help me right now. Bart filled me in on everything that had been happening over the last year, beginning with when Wally had disappeared into the Speed Force. I was shocked to hear Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman had all been out of commission for some reason. There was sort of a Justice League but neither of us knew where they were (outside of the Atom, with whom Bart had a few adventures with). Even still, Bart told me that even the Titans had no way of getting in touch with them, which gave us the idea of coming to them for help.

"How much longer--"

FWOOSH!

"--do you think this will take?" I asked.

The pain was suddenly gone and I was standing somewhere completely different than Titans Tower. What had once been the dimly lit lab of Cyborg had now become a Shangri-La of sorts. Light permeated everywhere and the structures were massive, architectural wonders that seemingly defied physics. I stuck out like a sore thumb wearing my crimson full-body suit that even covered my face. The yellow band of energy mimicking lightning that was stretched from my left shoulder to my right hip added a touch of artistic flair, but it was nothing in comparison to this place. I had never been here but Bart and I thought it would be the best place to learn more about the Speed Force and other high planes of existence.

"New Genesis."

Ripping my eyes away from the expansive city before me, I turned around and saw I was directly in front of a building that consumed my entire field of vision. I'm not just talking about being big…this thing was _monumental_. The entire city of New York could fit in this thing's lobby.

I ran to the closest corner of the structure to try and see around it. Amazingly, it took me a full ten seconds to get there. Bart never mentioned anything like this. Was I in the wrong place? All of these structures looked like they were built for _giants_.

"I know I should have made that left at Albequirky…"

---------------

Fire was something he had always felt a calling to. Even as a child he saw himself dancing among the flames, ready to involuntarily spring back and forth among them. The color at the base of each flame was unique, like a fingerprint. The fiery tongues lapped at the sweet smelling oxygen, constantly gasping for more. It was beautiful.

Or at least, it used to be.

He no longer found joy in watching the fire consume. The beast now seemed tainted instead of unfulfilled. The lore of fire was still there…he was just scared of its power now.

He had been burned before. More times than he could remember all throughout his life he had been scalded by the beast. But now it was different. Now when he looked into the flames all he saw was his own pain. He remembered feeling his nerve endings die off one by one. His flesh melted away into the salt water of the Pacific Ocean as the oil resting comfortably on the tops of the waves burned all around him.

To say the least, it had been traumatizing.

Even more, he felt like he was without a soul.

"One part standard motor oil, one part liquid soap, and two parts gasoline," Mick Rory said. "Mix these products and you have a basic napalm. Nothing too fancy or on the caliber of what the military uses, but it will get the job done. It's really just an accelerant being held together by the oil and soap. One ounce will be enough to burn down an oak tree."

He was garbed in his usual white asbestos suit although it hung on him oddly. Most of his muscle had burned away while he was left for dead in the ocean and as a result none of his old clothes seemed to fit anymore. The dank basement of some random safehouse he bought long ago held nothing but a few bottles of liquid, a table, and the two occupants. Mick turned to face the sole member of his captive audience, a butane torch in hand.

"Personally I like to add those little Styrofoam packing peanuts," he continued as he stepped closer to the woman tied to a metal chair. "It adds volume to the mix and makes the napalm easier to shape."

The nameless woman twisted in her chair of a prison, the gag in her mouth threatening to fall out from all of her squirming. She was barely into her mid-twenties. Her eyes were wide as Mick waved the tip of the flame in front of her face.

"Makes it easier to smear, too. Without those peanuts I wouldn't have been able to apply the napalm to your arms and legs. I can imagine how it feels on your skin: cold, sticky, and wet, like grape jelly."

He grabbed her right arm and ripped the twine out that was tying it down. Tightening his grasp around her wrist, he stretched out her arm and dangled the butane torch over her palm.

"I'm sorry that this has to happen, but believe me when I say that it _must_ happen. He took everything away from me, you see. My entire life was inside the fire and now there's nothing. Even the tip of this torch, which I used to be able to stare at for hours, leaves nothing but an empty spot in my soul. He took away my entire reason for living."

Casually pulling his eyes away from her tear-filled gaze, Mick Rory leaned in closer to her hand, mere inches away from her fingers. He lowered the tip of the torch until it briefly touched her napalm soaked nails, and in an instant it ignited.

Mick's first reaction was to pull his face away in terror even though his face mask protected him. Memories of half drowning in the ocean surrounded by relentless infernos filled his head but he forced himself to watch her flesh begin to melt away just like his had done. He had to overcome this trauma and regain his passion for the flame.

Without it he might as well be dead.

---------------

"So where is everyone?" I asked, hoping someone would pop out from around a corner to answer me. I didn't get it. New Genesis was supposed to be a bustle of activity, populated by people of wondrous abilities. From where I stood atop some type of elevated walkway there was nobody for miles. The more I thought about it, the more I feared I had leapt to the wrong dimension. It didn't help that I appeared to only be three inches tall in comparison to the structures.

This place didn't run itself. Someone had to be around somewhere. Allowing the Speed Force to funnel out of my feet, I put one foot in front of the other and I was off. I decided not to zoom around at full blast just in case I frightened anyone. Keeping a steady pace of seventy miles per hour, I began to search for any signs of life.

That first step when I begin to run is always my favorite. It's sort of like when you take a big bite of a mouthwatering hamburger. That first bite is always the best and the rest of the burger just doesn't taste quite as good. Now that I was powered by the Speed Force like never before that first step was even better. It was like diving into a pool of pure energy.

"Never seen you before," a strange voice suddenly boomed from above me, "but you move like someone I know."

I admit the sudden noise caught me off guard. The vibrations alone were enough to throw me off step. I stole a glance over my shoulder and scoped out the man lazily flying through the air. I've seen quite a few flyers in several different timelines but none of them seemed as at home in the air as this guy. He wasn't so much "flying" as he was lying in the open air and just as easily keeping pace with me. Not only that but this guy looked _huge_. He must live around here since it appeared he was actually proportionally correct for the landscape. His white uniform was dashed with bits of color around his wrists and neck, with a red emblem of some kind on his chest. He had to be at least a thousand feet tall. Well…give or take…

"Oh…umm…yeah," I stuttered as I squealed to a stop near what looked like a transportation hub. "Look, can you help me out--"

"You in allegiance with Darkseid or any member of his war cabinet?" he asked, almost casually. If he was supposed to be some kind of guard the look on his face spoke volumes about how seriously he took his job.

"Well…no."

"Then follow me, little man!"

The flying man streaked away almost faster than my superior eye could follow. Not to be put to shame, I raced off after him, my momentum quickly building up. Even though I was powered directly by the Speed Force, he still managed to get farther ahead of me than I would have expected. He obviously had the advantage in this race since he knew the layout of the expansive city better than I did. Plus…his legs were longer than mine. I know that doesn't matter since he's flying, but a guy's ego can only take so much punishment.

The towering obstacles of the city kept him out of view every so often but I managed to keep him in my field of vision for most of the run. We must have covered at least three states worth of ground, the glimmering architecture continuing to impress me all the while. I had a few colleagues back home that I'm sure would have killed to get a look at the designs in this place.

One thing you have to worry about when increasing your velocity is that your mass increases accordingly. It's a simple law of physics and can be a bigger pain in the ass then inertia. Connecting with a bad guy's chin at mach three can be a valuable weapon but when you're playing cat and mouse it can be a handicap. I was having trouble seeing around some of the structures and if I wasn't careful, I would end up slamming into a wall.

The whirlwind tour of the city brought us closer to the center of the metropolis where a crowd was gathered outside of a large amphitheater type complex. One thing was for sure: without him I never would have found this place. It would have taken me days just to find my way through the streets.

"Highfather!" I heard the flyer yell as he swooped down onto the stage.

Quiet murmurs began to pop out of the crowd as I approached. They were all hunched over, possibly praying. I zipped in between all of them and launched myself up onto the stage what, to me, seemed like several stories high. Even with the boost of momentum I had gained from running it still took the wind out of me making the jump. I noted the irony of the situation, since I had no idea what I was jumping into with these people.

"Be still, Lightray!" the older man he had addressed scolded. "We are still communing and you are supposed to be patrolling the outskirts of the city. What would you have-- ah, I see," he said, finally taking notice of my tiny frame. "A visitor from Earth."

"I found him by the universal library," Lightray responded, a gleeful expression on his face. He displayed the kind of irritating cheerfulness that could make a person sick to their stomach. Someone once told me that happiness is like a warm gun. Apparently content with this report, Lightray jumped into the air again and flew away in a twinkle of light.

The three or four dozen people that had been kneeling before I arrived began to stand up and come closer to the stage. All of them towered over me, draped in exquisite costumes that were almost blinding in color and design. The voices began to rise but the one called Highfather quickly shouted for them to settle down.

"Be you gods of outrage? Settle yourselves, all of you!" he commanded. He must have been someone of extreme importance as the respect his words instantly commanded calmed the gathering crowd. "Return to your communion. I shall deal with this visitor."

Highfather turned to leave the stage via the backdrop. Since I didn't want to hang around with an irritated gaggle of giants I sped off after him. His stride was easily a hundred of mine. I was certainly getting my exercise by keeping up with these guys.

Behind the curtain was a sealed container resting on top of a table. I could have sworn I heard it emitting a low humming noise. Had the inhabitants of this place been praying to it?

"You must have questions, I'm sure," Highfather stated as he grasped a small device off of a nearby table. "I recognize you as one of Earth's champions, even though you mask yourself differently now. Before we begin I think it would be wise to adjust your stature so the others will be more trusting."

"The Lightray seemed pretty upbeat."

Highfather laughed, stroking his beard. "Yes, Sollis would prefer to solve problems through compromise rather than combat. Still, as a sentry he can alert us faster than most in case our borders are penetrated." Tapping the device in his hand, Highfather activated some sort of shimmering gateway that erupted with a loud boom. "Please, step through and I'll put your queries to rest."

I was hesitant to just walk into a dimensional rift so casually but there wasn't much else I could do. There were easier ways of getting me into a trap, after all.

I walked through the hollow cylinder of light, slowly. Just as soon as I was a few steps inside, the entrance closed up behind me. Particles of light bombarded me from all sides, cascading over my skin. It was disorienting but not nearly as bad as the Titans' teleporter. A split second later, the end of the cylinder before me opened up and I could see the room I had entered from once more. I slowly stepped out and the light immediately died down, the portal disappearing completely.

"That was wei--WHOA!" The room had shrunk! For once in my life I was dumbfounded. I was proportionally accurate to everything in the room, including Highfather (whom I had a good inch on now). To say I was relieved would have been an understatement. Now I know how the Atom must feel.

"You must have used some Earth device to travel here," Highfather commented. "The technology of the New Gods wouldn't have failed to adjust your size. The stature of the gods, I say with no malice, is greater than yours."

Said by anyone other than an old man leaning on a stick, I probably would have been insulted. "This is New Genesis then?"

"Yes. You have arrived at a rather inconvenient time I'm afraid. We're preparing for war."

"War?"

"It is a long story and the preparations will be just as long, if not longer. There will be a day soon that the gods rage war once again. Sadly, it was not that long ago that we had to battle for our welfare. Our world was seemingly destroyed, but by the Source we survived. Sollis brought you to me while we communing collectively with the Source, that which encompasses all."

"Actually, I'm kind of here to talk to you about that sort of thing."

"Earth's champions have come to our aid on more than one occasion," Highfather said as he sat down. I noticed for the first time how tired he looked, like a weight was holding him down. As the leader of a powerful people, I suppose the pressures can be enormous at times. "I cannot turn you away. Tell me why you have sought us out."

I stepped closer and willed the Speed Force energy making up my facemask to flow down around my neck, revealing my pathetic smile. I suddenly felt guilty having come to this man who so obviously had a large load to already bear.

"Have you heard of the Speed Force?"

"Ah, yes!" he exclaimed, sitting up a little. "Your appearance here makes sense now! You wish to discover more about your power source?"

"More like how I can control it. My friend has inadvertently merged with it and I'm afraid it may kill him if it's not controlled."

"You can never control something so powerful," he replied. "It would be like clutching at heaven. The mortal coil cannot ever do such a thing. I sensed the dramatic change that overtook your 'Speed Force' recently. You say your friend has merged completely with it?"

"In a sense."

"You must understand that what you deem the 'Speed Force' is in actuality part of the Source itself. It is both separate and the same. For someone to actually become part of the Source…well, others have tried and failed. Condemnation will eventually be thrust upon your ally."

"I don't understand." Was I being arrogant? Or ignorant? Maybe a little of both. I couldn't just accept that Wally was as good as dead. There must be something I could do to save him.

"Heaven, the Speed Force, the Source, the various colors of the universe…they are all fragments of each other. The Source, as great as it is, exists in various levels of perception. What some perceive as the eternal resting-place of departed souls, another sees as the infinite fuel that powers them. To try and control even a segment of that would be to attempt a coup of the Creator."

Perfect. It's Wally versus God, or whoever is being "perceived" as the Creator. Yet another problem to worry about.

"In the sealed container behind you is a piece of the Source. Or at least, a way for the Source to contact us. It was greatly damaged months ago in a savage battle that rocked the foundations of this Fourth World. Infinite power is inside that box, yet all we do is seek guidance from it. You must do the same if you wish to save your friend."

I turned my attention back to the table, the low hum still emitting from the case. A fragment of the Source itself? Meaning a piece of the Speed Force? I'm a man of science…I'm not sure how comfortable I am praying to a Pandora's Box.

"I am…not sure--"

"Your hesitation in the matter confirms my thoughts," Highfather said, standing. "You're not ready. Fear not; I wasn't expecting you to be. To try and speak directly with the Source is not something you should take lightly. There is also no guarantee that you will receive a solution to you conundrum. In truth, I hoped you wouldn't be ready. The energies within you are not settled and would pose a danger to your own welfare if you tried to speak with the Source. Still, the question had to be posed before you."

Highfather stepped closer, again tapping the device in his hand to open another bright tunnel. "The Boom Tube will take you home. Have faith in the Source and your friend. The gods of New Genesis will be here again should you need us."

Everything was happening so fast, even for me. The Source, the New Gods, Wally…everything seemed like it should fit together but it wasn't. I was in over my head and even a pack of gods couldn't help me. I took another glance at Highfather before willing my costume back over my face. The cool touch of the condensed Speed Force energy reminded me again of what Wally must be going through. I mentally sighed and stepped into the tube, the particles of light again assaulting me.

At least I got a good story out of this. It's not every day a god throws you out of his house.

---------------

"No!" screeched an electronic voice. "The energies…time has fluctuated dramatically!"

"Calm yourself!" a second voice hollered. The voice was heavy and deep but with a slight gurgle to the words. "You will destroy your inner rex-circuitry."

"You don't understand!" the android continued. "Gather the others! I must activate the Worlogog at once!"

The large aquatic man nodded and did as he was told, rushing out of the room in a fluid motion even though a large metallic weapon was hoisted over his shoulder. The android, parting the brown folds of his long robe, held up a shining gray device that emanated crackles of strange energy. His yellow skin glistened under its glow as he manipulated the strings that whipped out of the device.

"Time and space, as connected as they seem, are being rendered inert unless we stop it."

---------------

**Flash Facts**

_Did you know that the Boom Tubes do more than just transport the New Gods around? They actually resize everyone who travels between Earth and New Genesis! I was shocked to learn that last week while researching Jack Kirby's Fourth World. The New Gods are actually giants in comparison to us. Can you picture Orion all pissed off when he's a hundred stories tall?_

_Oh, and expect to see Heat Wave get some more attention as he's my favorite Rogue. Plus, we'll soon find out what the last scene was dealing with (hint: you guessed the android's identity correctly)._

_Don't forget that Swarm is coming, too! See you next month._

_-D. Golightly_

_10/10/06_


	6. Popping the Valve: SWARM tie in

**Flash**

Issue #6

"Popping the Valve"

My name is John Fox and I'm the fastest man out of control.

There's this thing that runners have. At least, all the serious runners. I'm not talking about your older folks who wake up every Saturday and jog around the inside of the mall before it opens. I'm talking about the hardcore blazers that hit the trails every chance they get. I'm talking about the insane kickers that only feel alive when they're rapidly placing one foot in front of the other.

I'm talking about _real_ runners.

Anyway, there's this thing that runners have. Or rather, this thing they try to achieve. When your extending your body's natural balance of what it thinks it's supposed to be able to do, and all of a sudden you stop short, slowing down and decelerating your pace…that feeling you get…that's what real runners love to feel. It's called a runner's high. Your body attunes to pushing the envelope and then _wham!_ You put on the brakes and it feels like you're floating. Your legs are practically picking themselves up and the ground feels like it's made of springs.

You feel like a god.

Maybe it's a bit dramatic but you try running at a pace of over fifteen hundred miles per hour and see how you feel. The impulse to just keep going will threaten to overtake your entire life. That's why any speedster will tell you that a certain level of control is needed to keep yourself from going too far.

Right about now I could really use that level of control. I've been…possessed, for lack of a better word. My internal thoughts are my own but other than that I'm totally screwed. I butted heads with some crazy lady that strangely reminds me of that new Beetle kid I've heard about, and before I know what's happening, I've got this silver scarab thing burrowed into my spine controlling every action I make. &

**& (An extremely quick synopsis of Swarm #1)**

As near as I can tell I've been encased in some kind of silver carapace. It's a thick metallic coating that covers my entire body, even on top of my Speed Force suit. Whatever this thing is, it's not slowing me down in the slightest. It's forcing me to race along the coastline for the moment. I think it might be testing me as its host to--



I tried to scream in surprise but the carapace wouldn't let me. Was that the scarab?



Yeah…definitely not my own brain thinking those thoughts. It almost hurts to hear it inside my head, like it's forcing its way into my psyche. Do I even have to tell you that I have no idea what I'm being told? I'm just a passenger in my own body now, and looking over the horizon, it's about to get worse.

Five members of the legendary Justice Society of America are heading my way and they look pissed.

---------------

"Is that him?" Hourman asked his JSA teammates. "It moves like the Flash but it doesn't look a damn thing like him."

"That's him all right," Jesse Quick, a speedster herself, answered their leader. "After the Crisis I lost touch with the Speed Force but I can still feel his presence. That guy is definitely the new Flash."

The tension within Alan Scott's green bubble, their mode of transportation for the moment, grew exponentially between the JSA members. They had been contacted by Joan Garrick, the distraught wife of their former teammate Jay, to search for John Fox and get answers. Jay had been the Flash of the Golden Age of heroes and a close friend to the Justice Society so they were more than happy to track down the guy who had been avoiding their calls.

"I know one thing for sure," Alan Scott, himself a hero of the Golden Age, said as he floated just outside the green bubble he had formed to carry the others, "That's not Wally West. The energy he's giving off is unlike anything I've ever seen."

The original Green Lantern cast a glance over his shoulder and into the bubble to see what his teammates thought of the situation. Hourman had his arms folded over his chest as usual, his temper in check. Shade stood behind him leaning on his black cane, his dark clothing standing out against the green aura of the bubble. Jesse Quick, who had managed to retain some of her speed as a result of being a metahuman, anxiously stared down the speedster ahead of them. Hawkgirl looked uncomfortable in the confined space, her large wings obviously wanting to be spread. Alan wished they had been able to bring more JSA members but other matters had to be dealt with and their resources were severely limited as it was.

The former villain known as Shade stepped to the front of the bubble. "Who he is does not matter, Lantern. You know as well as the rest of us that he holds the key to helping Jay make a full recovery, so the question now becomes why has he ignored our summons?"

"Kind words from a snake in the grass," Hawkgirl blurted out as she twirled her mace.

"Dear child, I may have fought against Jay decades ago but that doesn't mean I have no respect for the man. The honor I hold goes beyond simple shenanigans. That past is behind me."

"He's spotted us!" Hourman called out, alerting the others. "Alan, drop us. He's heading our way and he's not slowing down. Everyone get ready for a fight!"

The elder Green Lantern created a shoot at the base of the bubble and deposited Hourman, Shade, and Jesse Quick on the ground. Hawkgirl burst out of the top and soared into the air, her wings exalting in the aerial freedom. Alan dropped down and concentrated, commanding the green energy at his disposal to form a magnificent wall of chains in the path of the racing silver Flash. He hesitated to wrap the chains around the young man, hoping that they could avoid a direct confrontation. After all, they had only come to talk.

Hourman touched down first, moving up to just behind the wall of green chains. "Shade, get ready to wrap some of your dark force matter around this guy if he decides to plow through Alan's defenses. Jesse, can you keep pace with him in case he takes off?"

"He won't be getting away, trust me," the young blonde replied.

Hourman nodded in understanding as he steadied himself for whatever happened. He had already taken his pill, ensuring that his stamina and strength were of superhuman proportions and he hoped it would prove enough for the situation. One thing he had learned throughout his career as a hero was to never underestimate a speedster.

The Flash, or whatever he was, rocketed toward them at breakneck speeds, seemingly undaunted by the grid of energy placed in front of him. Hourman braced to throw himself out of the way but at the last moment the Flash pivoted on his left heel and changed directions, racing around the side of Green Lantern's net.

Hourman was knocked over by something exploding through the chains, something that felt an awful lot like buckshot tearing into his skin. Thanks to his timed invulnerability the pelting substance was only a minor irritation but it had caught him off guard nonetheless. Whipping his head around Hourman saw exactly what had just happened. The Flash hadn't simply changed trajectories; he had kicked up a mound of dirt when he had planted his heel in the ground, spraying Hourman with the rocky result. Anyone without enhanced strength and durability would have been torn to shreds.

"I see we'll have to do this the hard way," Shade said as he aimed the tip of his cane for the rogue racer. "Just like the good old days."

Black shadows sprung out of the chain, splashing onto the terrain and covering the ground in sticky darkness. The Flash zipped to the side to avoid the trap but the shadows spread far enough to catch him. Like black-as-night tar the shadows adhered to the Flash's feet, drastically slowing him down. The speedster kept moving but at half the pace he had been racing at before. It was almost comical, like something out of a child's cartoon. No matter how much traction the Flash tried to get the shadows lashed up onto his feet again and again.

"My, you are a novice, aren't you?" Shade mocked with a devious smile.

"Who are you?" Jesse demanded as she stopped in front of the Flash and just short Shade's shadows. "Calm down and tell us what's going on or--"

The Flash's arms shot out faster than Jesse Quick had anticipated, slapping together and causing a great force of air to rush toward her, knocking her clear across the small valley they were gathered in. While the seemingly mindless Flash fought to free his lower appendages, the upper ones were swinging wildly at anything that dared to come close.

"Jesse!" Green Lantern yelled. Moving on instinct Alan Scott flew through the air and extended his green aura to encapsulate the young heroine. Her limp form gently fell into the green hand Alan had constructed, the dark bruise already beginning to show under her chin.

"Perhaps simply cutting you off from the others will teach you to play nice?" Shade threatened as he extended his cane once more. The shadows lifted from the ground and dove inward, creating a ball of darkness around the Flash. "As a former villain I'll never understand what makes you heroes so damned eager to fight one another."

The dark orb settled around the speedster, cutting off all sound and light. With a flick of his wrist, Shade's mastery over the shadows caused the orb to rise into the air and float toward the gathered JSA team.

"Can you hold him?" Hawkgirl asked as she slowly swooped in behind the orb, preparing to strike if the need arose.

"This same trick held Barry Allen," Shade answered. "Twice."

"Jesse will be all right," Green Lantern chimed in as he lowered himself and the unconscious Jesse Quick to the ground beside the others. "She's just been thrown for a loop. Any idea what the hell is going on yet?"

"We'll have to take him back to headquarters to figure that one out," Hourman said, his arms once again crossed over his chest. "Damn speedsters. Why is it that every time something big comes along some hero gets turned?"

"There's nothing to say that this guy is a good guy," Hawkgirl commented. "From what Joan told us this Fox person pops up every time Wally West disappears."

"That doesn't mean that…" Hourman paused as he took a step back, instinctually falling into a fighting stance. "Shade!"

"Everyone get back!" the reformed villain cried out. "He's going to rupture the orb!"

Pits formed in the black sphere as the Flash continued to vibrate at speeds incomprehensible the normal humans. A fissure finally formed at the top of the prison and the sound within escaped, drowning out the shouting of the JSA'ers.

"Alan, cover us!" Hourman yelled to his friend.

Just as Shade's trap literally blew up in their faces Alan Scott erected a green barrier in front of each person in the shape of a medieval shield. Black ooze splashed against the shields, sticking to the green energy before sliding down.

The Flash sprung into action, first taking down the elder Shade. The possessed speedster threw fifteen punches to various parts of Shade's body before he could blink, breaking three ribs and knocking him out for the count.

Next, the carapace covered Flash lunged for the second greatest threat: Alan Scott. Like lightning the runner shot toward the Golden Age hero, closing the gap between them in less than a heartbeat. He pounded his fists against the Lantern's personal aura, assaulting it with devastating force.

"Back off!" Alan commanded as he focused his will. Out of his aura sprung a giant green serpent head, its enormous fangs ready to pierce the attacker. The coils of the snake wrapped itself around the Flash, squeezing as much pressure as Alan's willpower allowed.

The Flash dug his hand in between the coils, vibrating it furiously. The shockwaves rippled through the conjured image, disrupting Alan's concentration. A final burst of kinetic energy was all it took to sever his bonds and the Flash was loose once again, lunging again for Green Lantern.

Inches from Lantern's face, Flash was suddenly thrown off course by a set of powerful arms wrapping around his midsection, tackling him to the ground.

"I'm not as fast as you," Hourman said, "but my reflexes aren't exactly horrible, either!"

Hourman held his grip around the waist of the Flash, his strength barely able to contain him. He knew that it wouldn't be long before the speedster simply overpowered him and took off at Mach 2.

Like an angel sent in answer to Hourman's prayers, Hawkgirl swooped down from the sky.

Hourman flexed his muscles, struggling to keep Flash still for just another moment. Hawkgirl soared in, her mace cocked back and a battle cry on her lips. The gyrating form of the Flash was causing Hourman to weaken, but he held fast.

FWW-BOOM!

Energy cascaded over the Flash's head as Hawkgirl's Nth metal mace struck him. Hourman released his grasp, forced back from the ferocity of the blow. The Flash fell to his knees, grasping at his face like it was on fire.

"Do yourself a favor and stay down," Hawkgirl commanded as she towered over her fallen enemy.

The silver portion of the Flash's strange body armor began to melt away, revealing a worn and battered John Fox. He blinked his eyes and looked around, as if just awaking from a dream.

"What's…," he mumbled. "Get back…Get back! I can't stop it! The Swar…th…AHH!"

Hawkgirl leapt back in surprise, ready to strike another blow. She looked on in shock as the silver carapace slithered back over John's face, completely incasing him once more. His eyes glazed over as the silver fluid trapped them behind its cold exterior, the emotion draining from his body language.

"Stand down!" Hawkgirl ordered. "I don't want to have to--"

The Flash speared her in the gut with his shoulder, picking her up in a fireman's carry and rocketing back out along the shoreline. His momentum shot them out over the waves, giant splashes of water billowing up from under his feet. They went over a mile off shore before he changed directions and released her body, catapulting it out into the sea.

A giant green tugboat appeared in his path, another of Green Lantern's constructs meant to box the speedster in. Instead of trying to disrupt the image this time, the overtaken Flash simply dove into the waves and kicked his legs furiously, propelling himself under the tugboat and away to freedom.

He resurfaced fifteen miles away, leaving the JSA members behind him. Striking land again, the Flash planted his feet and raced off, the scarab controlling him with orders to spread its seed among the populace.

The Swarm was coming.

--------------

I can't believe that just happened.

Those guys were legends and I just watched as my out of control body took them down. I can't handle this…



Stop it! I don't understand you, you alien freak of nature! It wasn't supposed to happen like this; I'm not supposed to be involved. History said nothing about John Fox going crazy during the Swarm invasion. Damn it all, I'm not--



What? None of this is making any sense. One second I'm wrestling with some red beetle lady, and now I'm…I'm spreading the children? Is that what this thing said to me? No, not spreading…repopulating! Oh, no! Damn it all, if this thing has access to my powers, what will happen if it takes over any of the other countless metahumans on the planet?

Even worse…when Wally plucked me from the timestream I think fragments of the stream mixed with the Speed Force. There's more power available to this bug thing now than there would have been if I was just a normal speedster. I need help. I need some serious help. I need--



Taken? What's going…wait…what…

Wha

----------

To be continued in Swarm #2, coming soon!


	7. Feel the Burn

**FLASH**

**Issue #7**

**"Feel the Burn"**

* * *

My name is John Fox and I'm bored out of my skull. 

Understanding something as complex as the Speed Force really takes a keen mind. It's not just a magical realm where dreams can become reality, and it's not a mysterious entity hiding behind a curtain. In fact, I would say that the bulk of the people who have been entrusted with the Force's power really have no clue as to what it's all about. I know I don't.

Listen to me. "The Force." Sounds like a bad science-fiction movie.

That's why, after taking advice from a guy named Highfather (thinks a lot of himself, doesn't he?), I'm trying to commune with the Speed Force. According to him, the Force is merely a fragment of other things in the universe. There are several different factions of the same extradimensional field out there that exist on various planes of reality. The Speed Force is just one of those.

**(Check out issue #5 for that story. – D)**

So, I'm sitting in the Garrick's living room with my legs crossed, concentrating on mentally contacting something I'm not sure is able to communicate.

Why am I doing this? For the sake of one man: Wally West. The last time I spoke with him we were floating in the ethereal dead zone that the Speed Force had once occupied. Thanks largely to some problems on a scale even I can't understand, the Speed Force had now been housed completely within his frail body. It had changed him, evolved him. The problem? We weren't sure he could survive being a living battery pack.

I'm sort of his avatar now, the only person on Earth empowered by the Speed Force, which means that I'm his only shot at getting home. Oh, not to mention find out what happened to his wife and kids. The thing is ever since I was sent back to the mortal plane I haven't been able to talk up a game plan with Wally. This isn't my native time and I don't have the complete trust of everyone here, especially since my future self is going to go back in time to a few years ago and really screw with people. Ain't time travel fun?

I'm trying to focus on contacting Wally, the Speed Force, _anything_ really, to try and get some help. Highfather didn't tell me it wasn't going to be easy.

Do you have any idea how hard it is for a speedster to sit completely still?

"Any luck?" Bart asked as he entered the living room (which is still decorated like it's the 50's, by the way).

I cracked open one eye and saw a tray full of chocolate chip cookies balanced in his hand. "None," I answered. "Am I supposed to be, like, having some kind of psychic epiphany here?"

"Nothing so dramatic." He plopped himself down on the vinyl couch and wolfed down three cookies before I blinked. Never try to match super speed with the ordinary hunger of a growing teenager. "Max used to commune with the Speed Force all the time when we were in Manchester. His eyes would get all fuzzy. Your eyes aren't fuzzy yet. I'd say you have to keep trying."

I hopped back up from the floor, frustrated with my inability to tackle the problem. You have to understand, I'm a tachyon scientist. I handle hard science, stuff that's been proven over and over and over by guys in lab coats that have hobbies like stamp collecting. This metaphysical thinking has never been my forte.

"Did Max have a trick?" I asked as I smoothed out the wrinkles in my pullover that Joan had given me. "Something like focusing on a specific object or maybe counting backwards from a thousand?"

"I dunno. He just kind of did it, ya know? I had a hard time concentrating on stuff like that back then. Never tried to do what he did. Not on that level anyway."

"Where's Max now? I could just ask him and—" I regretted opening my mouth a split second after I had. The look on Bart's face was one of utter confusion mixed with a tinge of worry.

"You mean you don't know?" he blurted out.

"Um…no?"

"Max has been missing ever since the Rival took over his body and vanished. No one knows where he is. I kind of thought you would give me the inside scoop on that."

Max Mercury, the Zen Master of Speed. He had time-jumped almost more than me, and that's really saying something. Even though my knowledge of the past was mostly limited to the really large events, I still remembered enough about Max to know that he had been the cornerstone to the speedster's understanding of how the Speed Force worked.

My continuous blank expression must have tipped Bart off that I had no idea on how to answer him.

"Oh, man," Bart said as he set the tray of cookies down on the coffee table and placed his hands on his head. "This is bad. This is very, very bad. I hadn't brought it up because I…well, I guess I didn't want to know the answer. When we grappled with Superboy Prime I brushed up against the Speed Force, and I could have sworn I saw Max there. But…"

I walked over and placed a hand on Bart's shoulder, attempting to console him. I'm horrible at stuff like this. "If that's where he truly is then it's for the best. We'll know once I finally get through to Wally."

"What's that about Wally?" a rugged voice chimed in. I looked over to see Jay Garrick, the Golden Age Flash and mentor to just about any speedster that ever lived. I had almost forgotten we were camped out in his living room. "Any word yet?"

"Sorry, Jay," I answered. "Not a thing. This extrasensory concentration isn't my deposit of prisbiss."

The two shared a confused glance before Jay shot me a questioning look. "Oh, right, I keep forgetting," I said. "You're not from the present. I mean future. See, prisbiss is sort of like—"

An echoing feminine voice broke my pitiful explanation of futuristic slang, yelling, "Jay!" It was Jay's wife, Joan. She was a strong woman that had dealt with everything from the possession of the Spectre to tea with Wonder Woman. Jay's original metagene that granted him superspeed that capped off at about the sound barrier was still functioning since his recent heart attack. The thing about living with a speedster is a yell never goes unanswered. No sooner had the call for her husband left her lips than both Jay and I were standing in front of her in the kitchen. Bart quickly brought up the rear.

**(Jay suffered a heart attack at the end of the first issue. – D)**

"What's wrong, sweety?" Jay asked. Pushing the better part of sixty and he still uses terms of endearment. Cute.

Joan had the majority of her arms shoved into a mound of dough and flour was spread all over the counter. She pointed with her chin to the television set on the kitchen counter, alerting us to what was being shown on the screen.

"The news just switched on over my soap," Joan explained. "A fire broke out in downtown Keystone and there's people trapped on the top floor."

A rush of wind roared through the kitchen and in the blink of an eye the plainclothes Jay Garrick had been replaced by the red and blue costume he had made famous. He rubbed his elbow along the side of his circular silver helmet, polishing it. Jay glanced over at me and smiled. "Think you can keep up, young man?"

I returned his smile and focused my will. With a thought and a bit of practiced concentration, my clothes were instantly replaced by a sheath of energy made corporeal. The Speed Force, channeled directly through me and into physical material, blazed a bright red as was the Flash tradition, providing me with a costume of my own. A vibrating string of yellow energy crossed over my chest, and my full facemask and goggles slipped into place, guided by my will.

Jay leaned over and kissed his wife on the cheek before rocketing out his back door. I waved at Joan and Bart over my shoulder and raced off after him, feeling the inertia kick in instantly. Images blurred but I kept my bearings as my velocity increased, catching up to Jay easily.

He cocked his head sideways as he ran, smiled again, and then really pumped it up a notch. He doubled his speed and lanced out ahead of me. If getting old means it's okay to show off, then I can't wait to gain some more years.

* * *

The vacuum of space swallowed up all sounds that attempted to puncture its eerie silence, but if they were able then the roar of the gigantic engines that powered the satellite would easily deafen all who approached. Inside the enigmatic ship, in a round room constructed of materials that had been synthesized on various other worlds, a collection of the universes most powerful figures sat in conference. Their dazzling costumes had become iconic to the denizens of the universe, as countless lives and civilizations had been saved by their number. 

"Are you sure there's a need to involve the entire Legion's primary defense?" their chairman, a powerful figure with broad shoulders, asked inquisitively.

A cloaked member across the table stood as he answered, "I would not have summoned you otherwise. Time as we know it is in grave peril. Due to recent machinations by a dark god of the past, the worlogog has alerted me to grave repercussions in our own time. We must act now before the ripple moving through the timestream reaches us."

**(Dark god of the past? I wonder if that's a reference to the JUSTICE WAR event. Go read it and find out! – D)**

"What is the risk of vacating our posts?" another member asked, this one bearing a set of wide shoulders, one of which supported a hefty and ancient metal anchor that rarely left his side. "Neptune was recently targeted by the Psion Death Squad, and even though the threat has been vanquished I do not wish to allow my protective planet to fend for itself."

A chalk-white female stood in answer to the comment. "None of us wish that," she said. Her voice sounded slightly distant, as if it were echoing off a stone wall. "But if Hourman says this matter deserves our attention, then we must freely give it. All of us."

"Agreed," the chairman said as he stood. The rest of their membership, powerful entities all in their own right, regarded his command of their attention as he had been deemed the strongest of their number. His place as leader had not been acquired by force, but rather respect. "Make the arrangements. I'll consult with Solaris and the Resurrection Man, making them aware of our actions. If the solution rests in the past then the Justice Legion Alpha _will_ find it."

* * *

Here's the thing about being the fastest man alive: you just can't save everyone. It's true, no matter how quickly you move. With something like a raging inferno you do your best but you must understand that no matter how fast you are sometimes Mother Nature is faster. 

When we arrived on the scene we saw a blazing inferno that was turning the six floors of the building into instant charcoal. The gray cement that coated the building's exterior was quickly turning to a dark black and I saw a few cracks start to run up the building's face. What astounded me was that the surrounding buildings hadn't yet caught fire.

Fire trucks were pulling up and getting ready to hose the place down. With as much respect as I have for the kind of men and women who willingly throw themselves in danger like that, there was just no way they were going to be able to get this blaze under control in time. I could hear the screams coming from inside.

Jay, having more experience in this kind of situation, shot ahead of me and vibrated his hand through the top of a fire hydrant that sat a few yards down from the edge of the building. Water spouted out instantly, reaching into the sky and dispersing like a sprinkler. Moving quickly, but carefully and precisely, Jay continued to vibrate his hands and cup them around the water spout, forcing it to douse the front of the building. He looked at me and nodded, signaling me to move in.

Now that the front surface was wet enough to keep the flames from scorching my feet, I eagerly rushed straight toward the building and planted my foot against it, pushing down with my toes and creating enough friction to get my other foot up into the air. It looks weird if you slow it down, but it works. Moving too fast for gravity to take a hold of me, I ran straight up the building's face and headed for the roof. I figured if I worked from the top down I might have a chance of saving some people inside.

"Careful your slipstream doesn't bring trouble along with you!"

Jay's words caught me off guard, but he was right. As I ran up the side of the burning structure, defying gravity and various other laws of physics, I tossed a glance over my shoulder to see that the wind tunnel that usually spiraled behind me had slurped up a few licks of flame. The fire was feeding off of the swirling oxygen in my slipstream, moving almost as fast as I was.

Sort of brings a new meaning to the term "hot feet."

I reached the top of the building and somersaulted forward, quickly ducking while the wind trailing behind me blew over. I felt the superheated air rush over me and thanked my lucky stars that I had a suit made of condensed Speed Force energy to keep me from really feeling the heat.

I stood up and collected my bearings, checking out the roof to make my next move. Surprisingly, the rooftop was barely touched by the fire. In fact it looked like I expect any rooftop might. Reasoning that the fire just hadn't made its way up this high yet, I ran to the nearest stairwell entrance and yanked it open. I leapt down the steps three at a time, eager to search the top floor for signs of survivors.

I wasn't prepared for what I saw upon exiting the stairwell, however. Plush carpeting, air conditioned hallways, and soft adult contemporary music playing over the intercom. I paused, looking left and right and wondered if I had somehow gone through the wrong door.

A quick search of the entire floor revealed no one thrashing around for their lives. I was alone. The next floor down was the same, as well as the one below that. The entire complex was empty, devoid of all life except for the decorative plants in the lobby. When I looked out the window, however, I saw the flames still happily lapping away at the firemen's attempts to extinguish it. I saw Jay run by carrying a fire hose. Something wasn't making any sense.

"Don't worry," someone said from behind me. The accent was a thick Australian one but I didn't recognize it."My fight isn't with them. I could care less about their safety, but I won't be bothering with hostages or distractions."

I ripped my attention away from the lobby window and looked behind me to see a ghastly man standing on the other side of the expansive room. He was wearing a white suit that seemed to hang off of him, like he was too thin to fill it out completely. The yellow pair of goggles around his eyes were held tightly in pace by the strap, almost too tightly. I could see the skin around them puff out slightly. And the skin… dear, lord. Chunks of it hung off of his face, the only exposed part of his body, and I couldn't believe that this man was actually alive.

Then again, maybe he wasn't. Stranger things have happened in this world. Talking zombies with tight headgear might be commonplace.

"Sorry," I replied. "Have we met?"

"Don't be a fool!" he shouted back. When his mouth opened from screaming his bottom lip split open. He winced from the pain but ignored it. "I'm not here to play games. Not anymore. Things have changed. It used to be that if you were a Rogue that you could count on some lively banter with the Flash before he put you in jail. Well, I'm not interested in that. I just want to see you dead for what you did to me. Plain and simple."

As crackpots go, he was pretty terrifying. Just looking at him made me want to run away like a little girl, but that's not what I signed up for. Even though he was somehow manipulating the fire outside and keeping it from reaching the inside, he just plain _looked_ nasty. I needed to put this guy down fast and figure things out, and since I'm the fastest man alive, that shouldn't have been a problem.

So imagine my surprise when I tried to clothesline him and my arm passed straight through the whacko.

I skidded to a stop, dumbfounded by what had just happened. I looked him over and wondered what I had gotten myself into. Intangible zombie freaks – check. Explanation – annoyingly absent.

"Okay, that was a fun trick," I said. "Mind telling me what's going on since you're so deadest on killing me?"

"No, I don't think so. Like I said, I'm not interested in anything but your death. Goodbye, Flash."

For the fastest man alive sometimes I really don't have a clue about what's happening as quickly as I should. The thin man in white outstretched an arm like he was pressing an invisible button in front of him, and before I knew it the entire lobby had exploded in waves of fire. It was like napalm had been ignited from under the floor tiles. I watched in horror as the first pillars of flame raced across the floor and headed directly for me. Once the initial shock wore off I figured out what was going on.

He wasn't really there, as was obvious from my inability to lay a finger on him. Since he was apparently touching invisible objects that left one explanation – hologram. This guy was projecting his image some how into the lobby and just as he had pressed that invisible button the entire lobby had been turned into a fire hazard. So, wherever he really was, that was where he was controlling things. It also explained why the fire outside didn't seem to be torching the inside. It was fake.

The heat I felt coming at me wasn't fake, however. It only took me a picosecond to realize the hologram thing, but if I wanted to find this guy and shut him down then the first thing I had to do was escape this trap alive. Without blisters if at all possible.

I hopped onto one foot and I started to spin in place, kicking my other foot every few revolutions to keep the spin going. Again, it looks weird if you slow it down, but then again most things at high speed do. Within the blink of an eye I had created a vortex of wind around me, which had collected enough oxygen to attract the pillars of flame headed for me.

Since this was real fire that meant it had to adhere to real laws of reality, meaning fire feeds on oxygen, especially when its collected and pumped directly at it in an enclosed room. I held my breath as I pulled in the air around me and in turn pulled all of the flames, too. The inferno began to swirl around me, desperately biting at the winds. It's amazing how speedsters never get dizzy, isn't it?

When I felt I had a good amount of control over the wrapping blaze, I kicked out of my spin at just the right moment and ducked. The roaring flames shot over me and hurled themselves at the side wall like an industrial strength flame thrower. The flames splashed against the wall and dissipated, mostly from having no more oxygen to eat up, but not before burning me an exit.

I stumbled into the alley where Jay caught sight of me. He raced over and placed a hand on my shoulder to steady me. "Are you okay, son?" he asked.

"Peachy." I shook my head to keep my eyes from spinning then glanced at Jay. "Some nut in a white jumpsuit is behind this. Said he was a Rogue. The fire outside isn't real, though. Holograms. Don't waste your time with them."

"A Rogue in a white jump suit who likes to play with fire," Jay said mechanically. "There's just one guy who fits that description. Mick Rory; Heat Wave. He's been out of the game for a little while. Not sure what's become of him."

"Well, apparently he's gone totally sadistic. He just projected a hologram of himself in front of me to say that I'm a dead man. Then he turns the place into a furnace. This was all a set up to get me here for some reason."

"Fire is Heat Wave's forte but this hologram business isn't. That sounds more like Mirror Master to me. He's getting help." Jay took off his shiny hat, something that would look comical on just about anyone else, and scratched his head. "Why is he after you? You've never even met him, have you?"

"Don't think so. Not sure he realized who I am, though. Look, can you handle things here?"

Jay nodded. "Sure. You got a lead?"

"Maybe," I replied. I wanted to track this Heat Wave guy down fast but I didn't want Jay to get in the line of fire, no pun intended. "Not sure if it will pan out but I'll let you know."

"Good luck, son. Keep me posted."

I raced away in a blur, leaving Jay behind to coordinate the rest of the firemen and authorities. Jay knew his stuff, and it made me feel a little better to know that he placed some confidence in my abilities. After all, the guy was a legend, and not just to this era. Even where I came from Jay Garrick was known all over as a hero of myth.

A lot of the Flashes throughout history have relied heavily on proven information to pull off some amazing stunts. I think it was Barry Allen who coined the term "Flash Facts" years ago, during a time when concepts like that could be used in the same way afterschool specials were. While it sounded cheesy, there was a lot of hard science being proven by the way a Flash could do something that appeared miraculous to the untrained eye. Just like Mark Twain stated in that book about King Arthur's Court, advanced science can seem like magic to those unfamiliar with it.

I'm a tachyon physicist, so for me simple astrophysics isn't anything to write home about. Learning something in a holo-lab and putting it to good use in real life, however, are two drastically different things. Due to the constancy of the speed of light, the motion of the observer is relative to the emitter. The apparent change in position of a light-emitting object is called an aberration, and unless I miss my guess, I might be able to visibly track it.

It's called the Blue Shift Effect. All I need are basic Newtonian mechanics, and the assumption that I won't tear a hole in the fabric of reality. Cross your fingers, kids.

I left Jay behind and shot through the city, racing toward a nearby graveyard I had spotted from the street. Resting high on a hill, it was the perfect vantage to see the entire "burning building" from. For this little trick I was going to need a panoramic view of the city.

About a mile before I reached the hill I put on a burst of speed, easily accelerating to the speed of light. As long as I did this just right, I should be able to trace the hologram projection back to its source, hence where the concept of an emitter is useful. Holograms are cool toys, but in the end all they are is bent light, meaning they move at the same speed as all other light particles. Once I matched that velocity I pulled up short and spun around.

All of the colors in the visible spectrum downshifted once I stopped and for a split second everything changed. The yellow of the sun turned orange, the green of the grass turned purple, and the holographic fire around the building changed from a blazing red to a cool blue. Not only that, but for just one moment I could visible trace the aberration across the skyline back to the emitter. The projector being used to broadcast the holographic images overlaying the building had just been pinpointed for me, complete with a trail of light particles to follow, if I was fast enough.

So, wasting no time, I tore off at light speed through the city with my head angled up to follow the soft blue path above me. It led me straight through downtown, uptown, and across the bridge into Central City. Honestly, I was just glad I didn't punch a hole in time with that maneuver.

I abruptly came to a stop outside of the Central City Waste Management station. Once I dropped down in speed the colors all reverted back to normal and I was looking at a typical three-floor building covered in stucco. This was where the holograms were being projected from, and this was where I would find Heat Wave. Unless he had bailed.

I crashed through the front door. No need to be sneaky when I can move to intercept anything known to man. I searched the first floor and found nothing, but the second floor, in the control room for the station, I found my guy. His real body was just as gross looking as his fake one.

"Hi," I said once I burst into the room. Who says I can't banter?

Heat Wave jumped back in surprise from where he sat at the console, almost falling over. "You!" he exclaimed with wide eyes. "How… Where…"

"Speak now or forever hold your peace," I said. "Let's start with why you felt it necessary to endanger people just to try and burn me to a crisp. We've never even met before and you're trying to fillet me. What gives? And while we're at it, how about telling me why you look like you walked out of a George Romero holo."

Heat Wave hesitated before reaching behind his back and grabbing some type of handgun. I shot across the room and grabbed his wrist, deflecting his aim to the ceiling. A bout of flame roared out of the gun, slamming into the ceiling and melting the covering to a florescent light.

"Enough!" I yelled. I was loosing my patience for this freak. "You're going straight to Iron Heights. I'm done with you."

"Just like you were done with me when you dumped me in the ocean?"

I blinked. "Huh? Did you not hear me when I said I had never met you before?"

"Lies don't become you, Flash. You rocketed me out into the middle of the ocean and left me for dead in a sea of burning oil! My asbestos suit nearly drowned me while the water burned away my skin. If it wasn't for the crew on the oil tanker I would have died, and I almost wish I would have. You stole my passion away from me. Because of you I have no love for the beast anymore! You've taken everything from me!"

**(That's more or less how it happened in issue #2 – D)**

That's when I figured out what was going on. Hunter Zolomon, the second Zoom, had taken the Flash identity for himself before I came on the scene. He must have been the one who dropped Heat Wave into a baptism of fire before I took the Flash mantle back for myself. That explained why Heat Wave was gunning for me so passionately. All he saw was the costume. It didn't matter to him who was under the mask.

"And the holograms?" I asked. "From what I understand it's not really your thing."

"I… I can't go near the fire anymore. I used to look at it for hours and feel truly alive, but now… now I can barely fire my own weapon without hesitating. I got the technology to project holograms from a comrade, someone who hates you even more than I do."

"You Rogues really do stick together." I pitied him. Sure, he was a reckless criminal who had probably murdered tons of people, but to look at him now… He was a broken man and I felt guilty over having an indirect part in that. Maybe if I had been faster, shown up sooner to stop Zoom, I could have prevented this from happening to him.

"Aye, mate," he replied. "To the end."

* * *

"Are you sure putting him in Iron Heights was the best thing to do?" 

I looked Jay over skeptically. We were back in his home and he was king of the house, but I took a slight offense to him questioning where I had deposited Heat Wave after taking him in. "It's where supervillains from the twin cities go, right? That's what it was built for."

"Sure. But Wally had some reservations about how it was run. That warden isn't to be trusted. I'm not convinced that—"

_KRA-DOOM!_

A roaring sonic boom rattled the dishes in the china cabinet, cutting off Jay. We both instantly jumped into action and raced into the front yard where we might be able to see what was going on. We were both in plain clothes again but that didn't mean our speed had left us. What we saw there both confused and shocked us.

Seven people wearing shiny costumes lined up in the yard as the portal they had just stepped through closed shut. Each of them looked like that had been chiseled out of the stuff gods are made of. Strangely enough, they all looked a little familiar.

"We apologize for the rather loud entrance," the man in the center said. His black hair had a slight curl in the front and his red cape flowed behind him like in the movies. "My name is Superman and we've come for the one you call John Fox."

* * *

**FLASH FACTS**

Okay, it's been a while since I released an issue of this series. I lost some of the attraction to the characters and I apologize for dropping the ball here. Totally my fault. Uh-huh. Writing a speedster is one of the most challenging things I've ever done. Couple that with the fact that the Flash is my favorite character and my stories just didn't really come out as all that pleasing to me.

Say wha?

Let me try and explain that reasoning: the Flash is my favorite character of all time. I have a level of creativity and originality I want to live up to when I write fanfic and I put a lot of pressure on myself to do it right. I put that pressure on myself and my editors have been very forgiving in regards to my tardiness ('preciate it, Mike!). So… am I still pleased? Not totally, but I think I'm doing something pretty cool here.

Next issue: expect to see the Justice Legion Alpha jump into action!


	8. Futurebound: Part One

**FLASH**

**Issue #8**

"**Futurebound – Part One"**

My name is John Fox and I am so out of my league it's not even funny.

A few minutes ago seven intimidating looking individuals popped up out of nowhere and knocked on Jay Garrick's front door. Since he's the first Flash from the World War Two era, it's assumed that not everyone that comes to say hello is friendly. The man has built a list of enemies. And when the new arrivals appear to be alternate versions of some of the most powerful people I've ever read about in the history holos, you should probably ready for a fight.

"You want to run that by us again?" Jay asked. He's standing beside me with his arms crossed and I'll be damned if he doesn't look every bit the hero he used to be. I raised my eyebrow at his question, crossed my arms accordingly, and tried to fix myself up with the same stare he had going.

My stare was returned by several of the seven figures, the foremost of which looked to be an analogue for Superman. To top that, he even identified himself as Superman, which makes me all the more confused. He definitely looks the part: big shoulders, red and blue color scheme, a couple curls of hair dangling over his forehead, and what could be considered a broad emblem on his chest. But he's not the Superman I know. He looks more like an actor that plays Superman on TV.

While "Superman" opened his mouth to answer I noticed that the other six people behind him were looking curiously around the chamber I led them to. It's filled with a few odds and ends that I managed to salvage from the destruction of the Museum, and I can totally understand how it might appear to them. Even though the Flash Museum was lying in a pile of rubble seventy feet above our heads, where ground level is, the chamber constructed beneath it by what Jay described to me as the Dark Flash was still intact. I'm not sure on the specifics, as the history of this century was mostly lost due to several Crisis complications, but from what I understand hypertime was involved and a skewed version of Wally West.

**(Check way back to **_**Flash #150**_** from 1999 for that whole story! – D)**

"We're the Justice Legion Alpha and we hale from the 853rd century," the pseudo-Superman replied. "I understand how this may seem strange to you, but—"

"No, I believe that part," Jay said with a wave of his hand. "What I want you to explain again is why you're here. You've been to our time period before and the last visit didn't turn out so well for us."

One of the figures, whose entire body seemed to be comprised of liquid, yet retained a solid shape and was somehow denser than water, shot a curious look to the brown-robed and silent man in the corner. Superman also paused and looked back at the robed one.

"Hourman?" Superman stated. "Are you sure you brought us to the right time?"

"My rex-circuitry is unable to make an incorrect calculation, Superman," the robed Hourman answered. He stepped forward and pulled down the hood of his robe, revealing a yellowish head with red lines where his cheek bones should be. He looked to me to be a robot of some sort. "This is the correct day and these are the correct people we sought. That one is John Fox, the key to solving our problem."

I would have blushed if my face wasn't already red. Now that I mainline the Speed Force, empowered directly by Wally West himself, I'm able to manipulate the Force into condensed energy, thus creating a stunning red costume for myself that covers my entire body, including my face. It's devoid of friction and even grants me limited protection from attack. I made sure to incorporate a yellow lash of lightning from shoulder to hip in honor of my namesake.

"That's me alright," I offered, but they didn't seem to be paying any attention to me.

Standing just behind Superman was an eerie looking creep dressed in black. He had points on top of his head that reminded me a little too much of a certain Dark Knight. "Perhaps Ares has done more damage to the continuum than we originally thought," he said, his voice low and scratchy.

"If that is the case," a chalk-white female added, "then we have no time to waste. My ancestor fought valiantly against Ares until the very end, and still she perished. His meddling with hypertime could very well be the end of us all."

**(You **_**did**_** read the JUSTICE WAR event, didn't you? – D)**

"Yes, Wonder Woman, the damage Ares inflicted on the realm of hypertime did cause fluctuations," Hourman said, "but the worlogog is intact, which means that our mission still stands as presented. Ares was soundly defeated with the majority of this dimension none the wiser."

"Unless I miss my guess," a man with long white hair said, "we should probably keep it that way."

"Mitch?" Jay suddenly asked. "Mitch Shelly? Is that you?"

"You know him?" I blurted out.

"Know him?" Jay replied as he walked over to sake hands with the man. "Who doesn't know the Resurrection Man?"

The two shook hands and I felt like a little kid watching a pair of sports stars meet on the pitcher's mound. The Resurrection Man was one of the few names and histories that had survived through the centuries. His adventures were ones that most kids studied growing up from my own timeline. Apparently Mitch Shelly had lived up to his name and stayed alive all the way until the 853rd century.

"It's good to see you, Jay," the Resurrection Man said. "I didn't want to say anything until you had recognized me. Messing with history and all that."

"So you're with this Legion group in the future, huh?"

"I'm more or less their tactician. But given some recent developments in our ranks I tagged along for the ride."

"Sorry to interrupt," I said. So sue me. It's not like I have to be the center of attention, but I hate being out of the loop all the damn time. "But I think we're getting a little off track. What do I have to do with your mission?"

"Through my studies of the worlogog," Hourman explained, "I have discovered variances in our own timeline that are shifting. The original cause of these fluctuations seems to be an altercation concerning Ares in an alternate dimension. That conflict has since been put to rest, but the connection between space and time is still askew. I hypothesize that the fluctuations we detect in our own time will eventually flow backwards until it reaches the beginning of creation, thus annihilating all of existence."

"So where do I come in?"

"One of the variances I have detected is the fact that your own history in our time has ceased to exist. You were meant to become a member of the Justice Legion Alpha but that event never transpired."

"So you're telling me that at some point in my future I travel to the 853rd century and join up with you guys? Cool."

"No," the Batman creep interrupted. Apparently future-Batman is just as rude as present-Batman. "What he's telling you is that you should have _already_ joined us by this point in your life. You shouldn't be standing here right now."

Oh. Wow. Nothing quite kicks you in the brain like someone from the future telling you that you shouldn't exist as you are. I know that with this stronger link to the Speed Force through Wally I'm more deeply rooted in the time/space continuum. As a former tachyon physicist, I understand the subtleness of that link. I've done so much time-hopping that my body is infused with tachyons.

"Are you sure it's Ares' fault?" I said. "I don't exist in time like anyone else, thanks largely to the power source I'm linked to. Perhaps you're wrong—"

"No, he's right," Mitch said. "Hourman is never wrong. Not about this, kid."

"But since Ares was soundly defeated and the repercussions continue," the chalk-white Wonder Woman said, "it is now up to us to solve the problem. Since you stand out as an anomaly and you admit to having a unique link to the timestream, you are our best option in finding an answer before it is too late."

Hurray for me. I'm the chosen one, or something. "So what do we do now?"

"Now we track down whatever is keeping the problem going," Superman said.

Hourman stepped in front of me and held out a strange device to my chest. It was silver with several moving parts sliding into, around, and through each other. "This is the worlogog," the android told me, "a virtual map of time. Once I link it to your unique position in the timestream it should be able to lead us to the when the problem is."

"It will feel a bit…surreal," the man made of liquid, who just had to be their Aquaman, told me.

"Yes," Hourman added. "You may see some visual inconsistencies while I work."

And he wasn't lying, as I soon found out. A invisible pressure hit my chest, stemming from the worlogog. Hourman slid a few of the puzzle pieces in the device around, making adjustments as he saw fit. It was then that I noticed the only member of their group that had yet to speak, a relatively short woman standing in the back ignoring all of us. As the unseen force spread out to my limbs and sunk through my chest, anchoring my position in the timestream I assumed, I began to see images fade in and out around her.

She was beautiful. I was surprised that I hadn't noticed her before now. Even though a bird-like helmet covered the majority of her head, she carried herself delicately and her features looked soft and smooth. She was thin, making her short stature all the more obvious. She couldn't have stood higher than my shoulders. A yellow and green bodysuit covered most of her, except for her forearms, which were covered by thick golden gauntlets that matched her helmet. And, of course, there were the wings.

If this was a visual inconsistency, I didn't exactly hate it.

Rising out of her shoulder blades and looped over her collarbone to where they latched in the front of her neck was a stunning set of golden wings. The material, whatever it was, looked thin but durable. I hadn't ever met someone from Thanagar, but if that planet still existed in the 853rd century then I was sure she came from there.

The images surrounding her, fading in and out like someone was flicking through the channels, were mainly of a tall figure embracing her. She didn't seem to be aware of them, and as soon as the pressure of Hourman's procedure began to dissolve, so did the flickering images.

I shook my head and said, "Did I pass?"

"This was not a test," Hourman said quizzically. He looked over his shoulder at Superman. "We have the locations secured. There are three timeframes that demand our immediate attention, all of which are in our own time."

"We're coming with you," Jay stated.

"I do not think it wise to—" Aquaman began to say, but Mitch held up his hand.

"It would be an honor," the Resurrection Man blurted out as he clapped Jay on the shoulder.

Wonder Woman rubbed at one of her bracelets. "We should split up," she said. "Striking all three points in the timestream simultaneously would be prudent."

"Hold on a second," I said, causing everyone to look at me, even the bird woman in the back. "We can't just go trotting off through time at the drop of a hat."

"We'll be back a few seconds after we leave, I'm sure," Jay assured me, which prompted Hourman to nod. "Besides, you were the reason they came here. It's only appropriate that you go along. And it would be rude if I didn't come too!"

"Same old Jay," Mitch mumbled.

"Then it's settled," Superman said. "Three teams. Your objective is to locate whatever is maintaining the fluctuations and eliminate it. Hourman will supply us with the means to communicate through the timestream."

"Jay, Wonder Woman, and I will take one of the locations," Mitch offered.

"Fine. Batman, you lead Hourman and Aquaman to the second location."

"So that puts me with you?" I inquired.

"And me."

My attention was turned back to the avian beauty who had somehow managed to come within a few yards of me without making a sound. Her slim jaw hung under a soft smile behind her helmet, making me wonder just what the rest of her looked like. "I'm Hawkgirl, the newest recruit to the Justice Legion."

Yep. It was a good thing that my face was covered, otherwise I might have insulted the future-alien by staring too hard.

* * *

"They have left the past and are headed here."

A machine hummed in the background behind the two men staring off into the void that was the display screen of the machine. On it they watched as the Justice Legion Alpha and the pair of Flashes faded from view and entered the timestream.

"Yes, I can see that much for myself," replied a bearded man with a touch of disdain in his voice. "If this is all the information that you can offer me then you are no more useful than my own equipment. I designed this machine several hundred years ago, which makes you almost as obsolete as it now is."

"I can _feel_ him moving through time," the first responded. "My own link to the Speed Force is as strong as it ever was, Vandal Savage. I will be able to anticipate their attack."

"Again, this is information I do not need." Vandal Savage, the immortal that had plagued a plethora of heroes for centuries, placed his hands behind his back and sighed. His purple coat was adorned with numerous metals he had not rightfully earned from countless worlds, and his hair was braided with strands of finely woven hairs from extinct animals from across the galaxy. "Seeing as how I was the one that placed the stop-gaps in the timestream and caused the repercussions moving into the past in the first place, I know _exactly_ where they plan to strike. It is only a matter of patience at this point. In fact, I begin to wonder why I allied with you in the first place."

The other man, standing nearly as tall as Savage, bore dark skin and golden gauntlets. Other than his navy blue pants and boots, he was naked, unaffectedly by the cold of Savage's home. He was not accustomed to working with someone that could not bend to his will. He hated that he had to rely on this immortal for such simple things, but soon the guidance offered would be null and he would gladly sever their relationship.

"We had a bargain," he said as lightning flashed in his eyes.

"Yes, indeed," Savage said. "You empower my planetary engine and I give you John Fox. But once the Legion is here, could I not entice this Flash to do what you promised?"

"His control over the Speed Force is impressive, but he is no where near as knowledgeable as me. He would likely destroy your precious engine."

"What is risk to an immortal?"

"Betray me and I will ensure that John Fox is dead before you can 'entice' him."

Savage scoffed as he stroked his beard absentmindedly. "Very well. I see why you were once a powerful adversary to Wally West. Our deal stands…for now."

Vandal Savage watched through the display screen of his machine shift again, now focusing on another point in space and time. It was the first location that the Legion had dispatched to, which they would soon find to be a trap. Once John Fox was in his control and his engine empowered, he could kill his swift associate and be free to conquer.

He chuckled softly to himself, thinking of the looks on his enemies' faces when they saw just who his ally was.

* * *

Where time travel is concerned, there are too many variables going at once to make an estimated guess of several things. Positioning in the continuum is the least of my worries. Usually you land on your feet, but even if you don't you can usually right yourself with nothing more than a skinned knee and a little embarrassment.

But there will always be one constant: nausea.

The moment our physical bodies are wrenched out of the timestream I feel my insides do a back flip. I may be the Flash, but that doesn't give me a cast-iron stomach.

"We're here," Superman told me. He doesn't look the worse for wear. Of course he doesn't. He wouldn't be Superman if he did. "Jali, get a better look around while I use my super-ESP to scan the area."

"Super-ESP?" I inquired while Jali, Hawkgirl, lightly slipped into the air over my head by a few dozen feet and began to spiral as she ascended. "I don't recall Superman having super-ESP."

"My ancestor married into an alien race that granted my bloodline several more powers," Superman answered. "This area seems devoid of sentient life. We should keep moving."

The area in question was a barren dessert filled with nothing but rocks, a horizon, and sand. Oh, and the sand was blue. Hawkgirl sailed by overhead, pointing with an outstretched hand toward a butte in the distance.

"Hourman directed us there," she called down. "I don't see anything other than a cave nearly halfway up the formation."

Superman nodded and turned back to me. "Watch your step. This is one of Neptune's moons. The landscape was torn apart sometime during the 651st century. Aquaman said he recently encountered the Weaponeers of Qward here."

"I'll be careful," I replied. "You just try and keep up"

I don't consider myself a showoff, but with Jali watching I felt a little compulsion to, how do you say, _exert_ some effort. A streak of red was left in my wake, juxtaposing the blue sand rather strikingly if I do admit. My feet punched into the soft terrain like pistons, leaving a pattern of alternating divots under my afterimages. The butte was coming up fast. I could have been there nearly instantaneously, but I wasn't looking to move faster than Hawkgirl's eye could follow. Where's the fun in that?

To my surprise, Superman appeared beside my after just a few seconds. Whatever happened to his bloodline, it sure hadn't been diluted over the centuries. He seemed just as fast as the first Superman and wasn't batting an eyelash at the pace I was keeping. He cocked his head to the side and shot me a smirk.

About halfway to the butte, the ground began to rumble. It wasn't enough of a quake to throw me off balance, but from the look on Superman's face I understood that this was out of the ordinary, even for one of Neptune's moons.

He pulled up short and I followed suit. Waves of indigo sand splashed up from the sudden dragging stop. Particles being pulled along from our run washed over us as the atmosphere caught up. Superman looked around with his head tilted as if listening.

"Quake? Or is someone buried alive down there?" I inquired.

"This moon's core was virtually obliterated during a Manta raid and all the tectonic plates were fused. A quake is impossible."

"I thought there was no sentient life."

"Me too," Superman answered.

As if mocking us, a humongous black sandworm exploded out of the ground only a few yards from where we stood. It's black coils were shiny and dusted with the blue sand of the moon, and it towered over us like a skyscraper. They sure make'm big in the future.

I dodged to one side and ran around behind it, hoping to stay out of it's immediate line of fire. Superman took to the air and headed straight for it's head, his fists outstretched over his head. For the life of me he was going to ram it.

I watched as his fist punch caught the thing just under the mouth. It buckled back and wavered, but as soon as it steadied itself it's huge mouth opened and a long, black tongue wrapped around his upper body. Superman struggled against the monster's tongue but was caught in place, at least for the moment.

Just then, a second black sandworm exploded out of the sand just behind me. I zipped between the two and avoided the second sandworm's tongue. It lashed at the sand and left a dent the size of a person in the ground.

"Flash!" Superman called down. "These are the Black Manta's left over Oceancrawlers! They're robots!"

Robots, huh? Perfect. That meant I didn't have to hold back. That was one of the biggest problems about having super-speed. If you moved too fast against an enemy that couldn't handle it, you could end up killing them. It usually paid off to just take things at a nice, steady pace, but if these monster-holo rejects weren't even alive then I could have a little fun.

A third Oceancrawler erupted from the soft blue sand right in front of my path, but there was no way it was going to even slow me down. I kicked it into high gear and everything around me slowed to a stop.

I tossed a quick look over my shoulder and saw Superman just beginning to break out of the metallic tongue around his body. The shards of the metal, whatever alloy it was, were beginning to split down the middle and in a few seconds he would be free. I was sure that he could handle his own Oceancrawler no problem, given that he freed himself with little trouble. That meant the other two Oceancrawlers were all mine.

I skidded to a stop, spun in place nearly a thousand times, and ran straight on for the closest snarling machine-beast. It barely moved a millimeter by the time I had raced two-thirds of the way up its smooth body, but all of the sand particles I was towing in my slipstream were moving just as fast as I was.

Carrying something big in my slipstream is pretty difficult, but grabbing onto little things with my aura, really tiny things like sand particles, was a piece of cake. The swarm of particles that had become super-heated from being spun almost a thousand times during my little maneuver sliced into the shell of the Oceancrawler as I raced up it's body. The blistering hot sand, most of which had turned to glass at this point, poked holes into the sandworm's skin and then dragged along as I ran, tearing long gashes in it's body.

I changed directions once I reached it's head, inertia even bending to my will at this speed, and raced back down it's body. The sand, still being pulled by my slipstream, rerouted itself accordingly while under the Oceancrawler's synthetic "skin" and tore tunnels all through it's insides.

By the time I stopped running about a hundred feet away, the Oceancrawler had fallen over lifelessly with all of its wires and parts showing. Now _that's_ how you take down a giant killer robot sandworm.

"Nice work," Superman said as he crumpled the neck of his Oceancrawler, which was now functioning just as well as my own, which was to say, not at all.

"Still one left to – oh."

"Hyaahhh!"

Hawkgirl dove through the sky, held aloft by her golden wings. She had finally caught up with us while we were fiddling around and had engaged the last Oceancrawler herself. Large curved blades appeared on the outer sides of her gauntlets as she descended, reflecting the light of the sun brilliantly. She flapped her wings one last time, adding more velocity to her descent, and cocked back one of her arms.

The Oceancrawler roared but all it was really doing was offering a place for Jali to slice open. The blade on her left arm dug deeply into the monster's false flesh, beginning at the wide open mouth, and cut down through the length of the body. She extracted the blade just before touching down lightly on the ground and it disappeared back into the gauntlet.

The machine-beast wavered, and then split down the middle where she had cut. Damn, that was cool.

"You were saying?" she asked as she shot me a look.

I raised my hands in defense and replied, "Who me? I didn't say anything. Nope."

"Let's get to the cave and then join up with the others," Superman interjected.

I motioned for Hawkgirl to go first. Always the gentleman, that's me. She nodded and took to the air again and we left the scraps of mechanical sandworm behind us. The cave was halfway up the butte, which we reached without cause for alarm. Inside it was dark, although the casting light from outside coupled with the soft glow of my red uniform gave us enough to see by.

At the back of the cave the air looked distorted, as if an invisible pressure was being levied against reality. There was a strange haze to the air, like smog but without the vapors. A silver machine that looked like a box with several moving components sat against the back wall, humming quietly.

"Let me guess," I said. "That's the thing we're supposed to find?"

"This seems too easy," Hawkgirl muttered.

"You call those things outside easy?"

"I expected a trap," Superman admitted.

"Those Oceancrawlers probably _were_ the trap. Let's just shut this thing down and go."

"Flash, don't—"

But Hawkgirl's warning came too late. As soon as I brushed against the thick haze surrounding the machine my stomach started to flip-flop again. I stopped in place, caught between ticking seconds on the clock. I was frozen in time and there was nothing I could do to get free.

The muffled cries from behind me signaled that I had just caused Superman and Hawkgirl to become trapped to. They had been right. The sandworms hadn't been the trap, this was.

And I had been careless enough to set it off.

* * *

_NEXT ISSUE: The Justice Legion Alpha is taken off guard! Frozen in time, the heroes are sitting ducks while the mystery villain teamed with the future Vandal Savage makes himself known._


	9. Futurebound: Part Two

**FLASH**

**Issue #9**

"**Futurebound – Part Two"**

My name is John Fox and I'm in big trouble.

I'm in the future, frozen in time. Two members of the Justice Legion Alpha, the JLA of this far-fetched timeline, are stuck with me. They recruited me for a multitude of reasons, and it's safe to say that being a klutz wasn't one of them.

We're standing immobile in a cave on one of the moons of Neptune thanks to a silver box device that's generating a wave of frozen chronal energy. Superman and Hawkgirl are behind me, and were unfortunately too slow to stop me from triggering the trap.***** I should probably point out that the Superman and Hawkgirl behind me aren't the ones that hail from the 21st Century. No, they're analogues of those particular heroes from our future, which I may or may not become a part of. It basically depends on what unfolds in the next for moments. Whenever they're from, I'm fairly sure that aren't thrilled that I was the one who sprung this trap.

*** (For the precise story, check out last issue – D)**

To be honest, I wasn't too worried about the situation. After all, this sort of thing happens to me all the time.

At least, I wasn't worried until about two seconds ago.

Remember when I said this was a trap? I know it's a trap because the bad guy just showed up.

He hasn't started gloating yet, and since he's only been standing in the cave with us for two seconds, you might not think that's enough time to gloat. But you have two things to consider before you make that assumption.

First, I'm a speedster that is directly streamlining the Speed Force.

Second, the bad guy is Savitar.

Yeah, _that_ Savitar. Probably the meanest speedster that ever lived. He injured several of the Kapitalist Kouriers. He nearly killed Wally West, Jay Garrick, Max Mercury, Jesse Quick, and Impulse. He _did_ kill Johnny Quick.

There are three inconsistencies in the timeline, and we're at one of them. So is he. This can't be good.

"Greetings," Savitar said. I had been powerless to watch him vibrate free of the wall of the cave where he must have been hiding. It's no simple matter for a person to vibrate their own molecules between the atoms of solid matter. I can do it, but it's not always so pretty.

The simple fact that Savitar was here, alive, bothered me. According to the histories I had read through before jaunting through the timestream, Savitar was dead.

It was a fierce battle, one that my predecessor, Wally West, had barely survived. In the end, the only thing that saved him was tossing Savitar directly into the Speed Force. It was the Valhalla for speedsters, and Savitar wanted it all for himself.

Wally didn't know that giving Savitar what he wanted was either good or bad; all he knew was that it got him away from the ones he loved.

"I expect you are uncomfortable," Savitar said. His purple pants were all that covered him other than the golden gauntlets strapped around his forearms. "The time-displacement generator behind me, I'm told, isn't the most hospitable host."

The way he was talking it didn't seem like he was the one pulling all the strings. Which made sense, seeing as how Savitar was more of a zealot than anything else. I doubt that complex science is totally out of grasp, but I believe his motives rest more rooted in religion than anything else.

That religion being speed, of course. Savitar could do things no one else had before, all thanks to his worship of the Speed Force.

Savitar looked behind me as he approached, carefully studying the two heroes locked in place there. "I sense the one in the red cape," Savitar said. "An usurper of my power, however unwitting he may be. Despicable. His swift motions are more about muscle than grace."

He turned his attention to me. "But you!" I saw the gleam in his eyes, like a thirsty giant ready to drink from the only lake big enough to sustain him. "I feel in you what I came back for. I feel the one who withheld power from me, withheld secrets, and withheld immortality."

In me? What was he talking about?

"He also mainlined the Speed Force. But, you are different somehow. Stronger. The power you possess is more _direct_."

Uh-oh.

He's talking about Wally. Wally West, during an altercation that nearly wiped out the universe, ended up merging with the Speed Force. Wally West, for all intents and purposes, _is_ the Speed Force. But he's trapped there, in an extra-dimensional void, powerless to return to Earth or any semblance of this reality.

The only way he was able to get grounded again was to use me as his anchor. Savitar is aware of that connection somehow. This isn't good.

Does this mean that the eternal timeline, from start to finish, now rife with inconsistencies, and apparently used as bait was all put into motion so that Savitar could lure _me_ here?

Wow. And here I thought that people didn't like me.

"I can only imagine how you will lead me to him," Savitar told me, as he was now standing face to face with me. "But make no mistake: you _will_ lead me. His reign is over. Mine is only beginning."

With lightning fast movement, Savitar lunged back a dozen feet, braced his right arm against his side, screamed, and rushed me.

His right palm slammed into my chest, but no inertia catapulted me back to the far end of the cave. His hand struck my body, feeling like it pushed inside me. My head was angled enough that I could see where he was touching me, and to my shock, he hadn't penetrated my flesh.

Instead, what he was doing was much, much worse.

Waves of energy poured over my body and into his hand. I can't even begin to describe the level of pain I experienced. It felt like a black hole had just been opened up inside my chest, and my body was fighting to repel its gravitational pull. My muscles were tensed under the pressure and I could feel my energy drop with every wave that flowed out of me and into him.

My red suit began to loss mass. In a trick that Wally had taught me, my costume was made of solidified Speed Force. I felt the suit began to disperse, as if Savitar was willing it away.

He was pulling the Speed Force connection away from me. How was he doing that? However he did it, it hurt. A lot.

"Yes," he said softly, and then louder again. "Yes!"

I felt my senses begin to dull. My vision blurred. My hearing combined echoes into incomprehensible blurbs. My skin went numb.

On the far side of the cave, I was vaguely aware of a loud noise.

Savitar said something just before he released me.

I saw more blurs of motion, nearly faster than I could keep track of, and then blackness.

* * *

"-can't possibly have been him."

"When was the last time you saw the impossible happen? I would venture that it was more recent than you think."

"But why?"

I must have begun to stir, because the answer never came. I recognized the voices, but couldn't put faces to them. My vision was slowly returning, as was apparently my hearing.

I placed a hand on my chest where Savitar was been bleeding me, thankful to feel that there was no puncture wound. As the skin on my fingertips began to feel again, I realized in horror that something was missing.

"Where are my clothes?" I said, the realization of my nudity fully awakening me.

I sat up, discovering that I was lying in a bed in a grey room with Jay Garrick and the future Hawkgirl standing over me. A sheet had been gracefully, and tactfully I noted, spread over my lower body.

"Your costume dissolved once you hit the floor," Jay said. He wasn't wearing his trademark hat, and he looked tired. Real tired, like he hadn't slept in a month. "Savitar really did a number on you, kid."

He wasn't kidding. I felt like a punching bag without any of the physical deformities. Savitar had reached beyond my body and grasped the connection I had with Wally, with the Speed Force. Had he drained me completely?

Hawkgirl looked down at me, her helmet masking any of the facial expressions she might have shot me. "You saved me?" I asked.

"That's a strong word," she replied.

"We avoided that time-stop thing at our location and came to save you before you tripped over it," Jay added. "We burst in while Savitar was doing whatever he was doing. What _was_ he doing, John?"

I shivered, and not from the lack of clothing I wore. "Absorbing the Speed Force, I think."

"You survived."

"Thanks you to."

"John?"

"Yeah?" Jay had that worried look on his face that obviously took a lifetime to master.

"Was that really Savitar?" he asked.

I nodded. "He's back. Somehow, he came back."

"And he wants you?" Hawkgirl more stated than questioned. "Interesting."

For some reason, I was more acutely aware of my nudity beneath the sheet than I cared for. I concentrated, focusing my mental awareness on the Speed Force. I felt that connection solidify, just as the scarlet costume smoothed itself over my skin and firmly set in place.

I stood up, comfortable behind my facemask again. The sash of yellow lightning danced from shoulder to opposing thigh, completely my look. A look I was fairly proud of, actually.

"Savitar wants power," I said. "And he isn't on his own."

"He's working with someone?" Jay asked.

The door to the room slid open, revealing the chalk-white analogue of Wonder Woman, and behind her, the fluid form of Aquaman. "We have the location," Wonder Woman said.

Aquaman bid us to follow him as he flipped a huge metal weapon over his shoulder. Wonder Woman turned, and Jay left behind her. Hawkgirl paused at the doorway in front of me, looking over her shoulder at me.

I stopped, too, waiting for her to speak. She didn't. Instead, she looked over me carefully before turning to follow the others. I may be the fastest man alive, but is that wasn't a quick once-over, then I might as well be a tortoise.

She left me wondering what was going through her mind as I stood there. I let her get a few steps ahead before I entered the hallway, content to see Jay standing there waiting for me. We both watched her round the next corner in the hallway and leave our shared field of vision.

"In all my years as a superhero," Jay said, "there's one thing I've learned."

"What's that?"

"Women, no matter what species, are trouble."

I laughed. Jay was a good man, and a legend in his own right. I admired him, and not just for his bravery. He knew what it was like to lead a life like mine, and that wasn't something that just anyone could understand, not even most other heroes.

When you live your life between the ticks of a second, it's hard to understand what people view as a normal life.

Jay clapped a hand on my shoulder, which made me almost immediately stop laughing. When I saw the serious look in his eyes, I knew he was done with the sage wisdom. "John," he said. "Was that Savitar? You have to be sure."

"I think it was, Jay."

"This is not good. Savitar was worse than any enemy Wally had ever faced. He's here for a reason, however he got here. If he's involved then this isn't something that the others will understand."

"Are you saying we can't trust the Justice Legion?"

"I'm saying that when this comes to an endgame they won't be able to keep up with him. Savitar is our responsibility. This fight just got personal."

"But you guys obviously fought him off. Otherwise I'd probably be dead."

Jay sighed. It doubled the level of tired I had seen on him before. "We didn't so much fight him off as we distracted him," Jay said. "Wonder Woman and I burst in. I tackled Savitar to get him away from you while she destroyed the generator that was keeping you out of the fight. That snapped Superman and Hawkgirl to attention, too, but you had already been drained enough to keep you down."

"How did you get him away from us?"

"We did the opposite. We got _us_ away from _him_."

"You ran."

"Only after Superman took out the base of the butte we were inside. Toppled the whole tower on top of Savitar."

"Think it killed him?" I asked.

Jay merely raised an eyebrow in question to my comment. Like I said, Jay understands the life we lead. Savitar was still alive, and probably only aggravated.

I nodded and let the silence linger as we brought up the rear of the group. Thanks to our speed, we only stepped into the room a moment after they did. At the center of the room was a huge holographic display, not unlike other displays I've seen in my travels.

It bent light to create three-dimensional objects, but unlike the transparent figures that 21st Century technology was able to conjure, this model developed constructs that looked real. No framerate, no pixel glitches. Real.

The particular image being created by the display was that of a planet, or more precisely, a planetoid. It was smaller than Earth, much smaller, approximately only a third the size. Its terrain looked uncultivated and there was no atmosphere to speak of.

Then, as Superman pressed a button on the console, white clouds enveloped the planetoid in a burst of continuous movement. Storms began to rage all over the newly created atmosphere, complete with lightning and winds.

"This is a replay of what happened only moments ago," Superman said. "We aren't sure how it happened, only that it did."

"I'm not sure what I'm looking at," I said. Resurrection Man turned to look at me, aware that I probably wasn't up to speed on everything. Pun intended.

"You just witnessed the birth of an ecosystem," he told me. "An impossible occurrence that takes millennia to establish. An act like that would have sent shockwaves rippling through the galaxy, not unlike the big bang. Ecosystems don't do that naturally."

"Okay," I said. "And how is this connected to our timestream problems?"

"We aren't sure yet," the dark and brooding Batman said. "However, I've linked by way of pholitic straps that the same energy used to empower the generators we disabled is the same energy that was used to empower this occurrence."

"So whoever was helping Savitar trap us just built his own little private world," I acknowledged. "Sounds like a trap."

"I do not think you comprehend what is happening here," Hourman said. Since he was a robot, I suppose I could excuse the lack of pragmatics. "The original time distortions that led us to you are growing at an exponential rate. True, the three anomalies we tracked in our time were traps to incarcerate you, however this event, while sharing a power source, could not possibly be related to the timestream. The laws of physics deny it."

"And yet there it is," I said.

"There is it. An impossible event related in an impossible way to something that man should perceive as impossible."

"What does this mean to us?" Jay said.

"That time is unraveling," Batman said. "The distortions are increasing in every level of subspace we can detect, _except_ for where this planetoid exists. I believe this new planetoid is the first in a plan to replace the galaxy."

Wow. Whoever Savitar was working with, he was operating on a whole other level than I was used to. As a job requirement, being a Flash means you have to deal with things that are barely comprehensible. But this time, the entire galaxy seemed to be at risk.

And at the center of it was me.

_NEXT ISSUE: The Justice Legion Alpha, along with a pair of Flashes, race to stop time from unraveling. But are the villains' motives truly as they appear? Plus, the fate of Wally West hangs in the balance!_


	10. Futurebound: Conclusion

**FLASH**

**Issue #10**

"**Futurebound – Part Three"**

My name is John Fox and I'm the fastest man alive. At least, I _think_ I am.

Jay Garrick is beside me, and at one point, he was the fastest man alive. Now he's a slow second, but his years of experience more than make up for it. I'm in the future, riding shotgun through a tesseract field with future analogues of the JLA. Their Superman is no dub either when it comes to a foot race, although I'm told his speed is more muscle than anything else.

Future versions of Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Batman (super creepy, by the way), Hawkgirl, and Hourman are with us. The original Resurrection Man is part of their team, taking a more active field status since their Starman betrayed them. None of them would be able to even catch my slipstream.

You'd think that I would be pretty confident about my speed prowess then, right? Wrong.

Savitar, somehow, is in this timeline. I don't know how, or even why, but he's here. Working with Vandal Savage. I can't think of a more dangerous combination. He's apparently after me.

"How does this tesseract work again?" Jay asked.

"It is similar in design to what you would call a boom tube," the robotic Hourman replied. "Except that instead of transporting you the tesseract transports the two points in space closer together."

"We're moving space?" I said.

"Essentially. That is an elementary explanation."

Wow. Have I mentioned how cool the future is?

"The other side is opening," Superman told us. "Get ready."

The other side of this weird tunnel supposedly leads to Savage's home base located on the planet Mercury. Apparently all of the worlds in the Solar System have been colonized for thousands of years. Mercury, as Hawkgirl told me, looks to be a pretty fast-paced city. The kind of place I could live in. *****

*** (In this timeline, John Fox has not yet joined the Justice Legion Alpha, so he hasn't yet made Mercury his home as seen in the awesome DC 1,000,000 event – D)**

Hawkgirl. I looked her over again faster than anyone, even Jay, could notice. It's the third time I've done it in the last second. The first time I saw her upon getting to the future I noticed some bizarre afterimages floating around her. Someone close to her. Very strange, but I have no idea what they meant.

Not that I wouldn't mind being that close to her. She's hot, as far as aliens go. Given the look she gave me before we left I'm not unconvinced she wouldn't want me that close.

Here's the big problem we're facing at the moment. Vandal Savage, somehow, is disturbing time enough that entire planets are being created and then crumbling in mere hours. Ecosystems are established and ripped away within minutes. Life evolves and dies in seconds.

However he's doing it, it's causing havoc on the timestream. As Hourman describes it, Savage's meddling has caused a temporal rippling effect heading backwards through time. Maybe even hypertime.

If we don't stop him he runs the risk of obliterating all of creation. Just another day, right?

I saw the tesseract open into a red room with huge silver towers randomly spaced throughout. Cables thicker than me ran the length of the walls, plugging each tower into each other. The floor, patched together from compacted dirt, had a rusty tinge to it that reflected off of the towers.

Superman and Batman burst out into the room first. They are the leaders here, just like the original counterparts would be. Some things never change.

The rest of us grouped around them, taking in the scene. "Thanagarian technology," Resurrection Man said. "Hawkgirl?"

"Definitely," the winged female replied. "Most of my race has been wiped out. Savage must have stolen some of our technology centuries ago to do this."

"Is this how he's doing whatever it is he's doing?" I asked.

Batman answered without glancing at me. Even though he had a mask covering his entire head, he looked like he was concentrating. "According to my pholitic straps, which are continuing to identify more and more various alien technologies, Savage is filtering through epic amounts of energy with these towers."

"Energy to power whatever he's using to create entire worlds," Wonder Woman said. "But where is the energy being generated from?"

My eyes caught the movement, but I still wasn't fast enough to intercede. A blur smashed through Aquaman's solid water body, dispersing him everywhere. He simply exploded as the blur shoved itself through the hero from Neptune. Everyone caught themselves at attention instantly.

"It's being generated," Savitar said as he glowered at us, "from _me_."

Superman got to him first, but Savitar was still too fast for him. He sidestepped Superman's lung and raced for Wonder Woman, slamming his fists against her energy shield. She could withstand a hit from a megarod, but pushing her back wasn't what Savitar intended. Instead it was a distraction, as he raised his leg out and clipped her chin at mach three. She tumbled over and bashed against the wall thirty feet in the air. Hawkgirl rose to the air and caught her, lowering her to safety.

I took my chance and acted. I burst into a whirlwind around Savitar, creating a vortex around him. With luck, I could keep up with him and distract him while the JLA moved in.

"Embarrassing," Savitar said as he simply zipped out of the vortex, stepping around me as I circled.

Batman launched a handful of glowing batarangs at Savitar, who simply vibrated through them. They exploded in Hourman's face, causing him to stumble back. Savitar was on top of Batman in an instant, although the future Dark Knight spun his cape around himself and vanished before Savitar could touch him.

"Coward," Savitar said as he paused to choose his next target.

A mighty thunderclap sounded as Superman clapped his hands together. He began rubbing his palms at hyperspeed, generating amazing friction. "We'll see how fast you are after I slow your thought with my superESP," Superman said.

"Your mind powers only effect what they can focus on," Savitar said. "According to Savage, anyway."

Savitar rocketed to the far side of the room and ducked into the shadows, causing Superman to stop rubbing his hands together. Superman lifted into the air, but was struck down by the body of Batman being thrown at him.

Savitar was behind them in a millisecond. "Lurking in the darkness is not how a warrior acts," the speedster said.

Twin pools of water suddenly formed underneath both of Savitar's feet, clutching at him and holding him in place. Aquaman's head formed between the pools, saying, "Stand down, or I'll boil the hydrogen in your body."

I delivered a right haymaker to Savitar's chin in a red blur, taking advantage of his immobility. I followed it up with another from the left side, but Savitar was gone.

Aquaman reformed beside me, his solid water body composing itself perfectly. "Where did he go?" the hero asked.

The air in front of us shimmered and I realized that Savitar had vibrated his body at just the right speed to make himself both invisible and intangible. His body materialized, but his left hand kept vibrating.

He plunged the hand deep into Aquaman's body and said, "And what if I boil your entire body?"

Aquaman screamed in pure pain. I swung at Savitar, but he speedster ducked under it and kicked me away. Hawkgirl swung in low, her arm blades extended, but Savitar heard her coming. He ripped his arm out of Aquaman, added momentum to her flight through use of the Speed Force, and sent her crashing into one of the silver pillars.

Hourman was still standing, right? Where was Hourman?

Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman had gotten up and were surrounding Savitar. I managed to stand, but it felt like I had cracked a rib. Superman's eyes began to glow red and I assumed that heat vision had survived through the bloodline.

"Enough of this playtime," Savitar said. "I'm taking what is mine."

And at that, he ran across the room at hyperspeed, gripped my forearm, and dragged me away from the brawl. The Justice Legion Alpha, busted, bruised, and bent, was left behind me where they couldn't help.

Savitar whipped me through the complex. It was massive. Like, as big as a city massive. My heels were scraping against the ground, keeping me from getting any traction under myself. I was at his mercy, wherever he took me.

Where he ended up taking me was straight to Vandal Savage. The immortal villain had grown longer, silver-streaked hair since I had seen him. A purple cloak was wrapped around his shoulders, with an eye patch covering his left eye.

Eye patch? Isn't Vandal immortal? Something must have happened in the last few thousand years that had permanently scarred him.

Savage was standing on front of a massive machine that was pumping out gobs of black smoke. I guess they still haven't figured out how to get rid of pollution yet.

"Excellent," Savage said. "I've nearly used up the last stores of kinetic energy you supplied my planetary engine with. The cosmos is getting quite crowded with all the worlds I've created in my own image."

Savitar dropped me, allowing my feet a rest. I tried to stand but the pain in my side kept me from doing so. "I have what I want, Savage," Savitar said. "The deal is over. I shall not provide you with any more of my power."

Savage was using this machine to create entire planets? Wow. And powered by Savitar, too. Interesting.

"Impudent whelp!" Savage exclaimed. The fury on his face was overly evident. "At times I saw fit to rule various worlds. Earth. Mars. Even Jupiter for a decade. Now, so far into my life, I tire of the inane games that these everlasting heroes seek to disrupt. I bring you into my fold, allow you to be a part of the making of an entire galaxy, and you depart? Fool."

"We used each other," Savitar replied. "Our business is at an end."

"And so I surmised days ago," Savage said. "Immortality has provided me with quite a bit of foresight."

Twin beams of orange energy blasted both me and Savitar, instantly encapsulating us. They were being discharged from the wall somewhere, I couldn't make out where exactly. The pain was too intense for me to really focus.

The yells were stuck in my throat. I couldn't tell if Savitar was screaming in agony or not since the ringing in my ears was too loud.

"A temporal distortor," Savage told us as he picked up a goblet and sipped from it arrogantly. "Something I picked up from great Oa 'Morta of the Khund around 5620. He tried to conquer the Cloud Nebula with it, but I find it more useful against speedsters. It freezes your atoms in this timeframe, making it impossible for you to move."

Savage swirled the liquid around in his goblet and sneered. "Long enough exposure will erase you from time. It's how I killed the Lightning Lad of that insufferable Junior Justice League last month."

Whatever this thing was, Savage was right about one thing: I couldn't move. At all. Not even blink my eyes.

A yellow hand sliced suddenly through the energy cocoon holding me, dispering it. Savage said something in defiance of the newcomer as I tumbled to the ground in a heap. My chest was on fire as sweet oxygen exploded into my chest again.

I looked up to see Hourman, cloaked in his brown, flowing robes. He turned his attentions back to Savage, but said to me, "The worlogog led me to you and this abomination on time. Quickly, Flash, stop the—"

A scarlet spear stabbed the android in the shoulder, casting him back a few feet. I looked to see Savage, who was wielding several more of the spears, running for us. I stood up to rush him, but Savitar tackled me around the waste.

The bastard was still intent on getting to me. It seemed that he was more willing to take me down than fight off Savage for his own escape.

There was a blinding light, a flash of lightning, and we both were gone.

* * *

My name is Wally West, and I'm the very essence of speed.

Some know it as power, others as a means of everlasting life. Still more have looked to speed as a religion.

One man, a zealot named Savitar, looked to speed not only as a way of life, but as his god. I fought him, giving him what he wanted in the end and sent him spiraling directly into the Speed Force, that extra-dimensional field that supplies speedsters with their power.

He even took his name from the Hindu god of motion. Ironic, considering what I am now.

During an altercation with a Superboy from another universe, I was forced to do what my uncle had done before me. I sacrificed myself for the greater good. That's what heroes do. That's what Uncle Barry did.

I merged with the Speed Force. I _became_ it, controlled it, willed it.

But I'm only human, and humans weren't designed to withhold such awesome power. I needed an output, an anchor. That man turned out to be John Fox, a fan of mine from my future.

He's made the role his own having journeyed through the timestream and eventually becoming a hero on the planet Mercury. But that hasn't happened yet, and possibly never will happen thanks to the intervention of Savitar.

Twice I was nearly pulled into the Speed Force before, and twice I managed to escapes its daunting pull because of the love of my life, Linda. I have since learned that it wasn't just the connection I shared with her, but rather the extreme emotional desire to latch on to another person.

Savitar and I have this one and only thing in common. However, whereas my desire was based out of love, his was based out of hatred. For me.

He escaped the Speed Force when I took it over, driven by his hatred and jealousy of me. Now he has struck at John, my avatar of speed, to get back at me.

In the weeks that have passed since I recruited John I have learned a great deal about the Speed Force. I can now be its guiding hand to ensure that random, undeserving creatures like Savitar will no longer receive its gift. He never should have been granted its power in the first place.

Now, I will take it from him.

The temporal energies that Savage captured both John and Savitar with still lingered around them, and when Savitar touched John again, they were swept away into the timestream. I caught them, as John's unique presence in time, established by being connected directly to me, and brought them here.

Where is here? The Speed Force.

To my left is Savitar, furious at the sight of me. His jealousy will never end, nor will his evil. I watch him shrivel as I remove the power of the Speed Force from his body, severing his connection forever.

He curses me as he dies, unaware that unless I will it in this place, he has no voice.

And so Savitar ends, this time not getting what he desired, but instead having it ripped from him like all the others he killed and used up. A fitting death.

To my right is John, his gleaming red suit standing out amongst the yellow lightning background of the Speed Force. He saw what I did to Savitar. He does not look happy.

"Wally?" he said. "Is that you?"

I assure him that it is and that he need not fear me. He might have been in a state of shock, but he began to ramble about the type of hero I was. He began to overly state how I had changed and that Wally West would never kill anyone.

I told him I'm not human anymore, and for whatever reason, I have been chosen to govern those that seek the power of the Speed Force.

"What about my purpose?" John said. "I thought I was supposed to anchor you. What about Linda? You charged me with finding her and the kids!"

I wave my hand and bend the light behind me. Until Savage's interference I wasn't able to directly contact John to tell him that Linda and the twins were with me the whole time. I had brought them with me, but until I had come into my own within the Speed Force, I didn't know how to retrieve them.

"You will still be the Flash," I told him. "There must always be one. Time is not straightforward anymore. You have more work to do, and I will ensure that you will no longer be alone."

He argues, but I banish him back to where I took him from. He will understand in time, but I have changed and that I have to look at the bigger picture.

There's a lot for him to do, and for me as well.

My name is Wally West, and I am the fastest god alive.

* * *

"Ouch!"

I feel my chest and am thankful that my wounds have been healed. Somehow Wally must have taken care of that before sending me back. I'm the Flash, after all, like he said. I've got work to do.

But I still can't believe it. Wally, a god. Is he _my_ god? The god of speed?

KRA-KOOM!

Looks like the JLA is back on their collective feet, not that Savage isn't trying his best to bowl them over. All of the heroes except for Hourman, who seems to be focusing his attention on what I already know is the worlogog (that's a physical map of all space and time that he constantly studies), seem to be holding their own.

Savage had suited up in some exo-skeleton monstrosity that would put Rippley to shame. Hawkgirl came in for a dive bomb, her blades extended, but Savage easily parried her with one hand, while using his other hand to emit some sort of suppression way against Superman and Wonder Woman.

Aquaman attacked from the rear, slamming his anchor weapon at the back of Savage, but the automated defense systems in the exo-skeleton countered him, shuffling his blow to the side and casting him aside.

Resurrection Man died. Twice.

Batman handed Jay something from his belt, but both of them were caught off guard by the spiraling fourth and fifth arms of Savage's suit. They're sent reeling, just like Aquaman.

They're getting mauled.

"Flash!" Hourman called out. "I need you!"

I'm beside the android in half a breath. The worlogog is vibrating fast, and even I can barely see it.

"Savage's planetary engine is going to explode unless we control the chronal output!" he told me. "This vile machine is outputting too many tachyons."

"Lucky for you in my time I was a tachyon physicist," I replied. "You mean to tell me that this thing is actually _leaking_ time particles?"

Hourman couldn't reply as he was too busy sliding pieces of the worlogog back and forth, in what I assume was an effort to contain the rampant energies being discharged around us. A portion of the wall simply evaporated as a stray beam slashed it.

The first rule about tachyon particle acceleration is that there is no forward and backward. They don't start flowing at one place and continue in one direction. They are always moving, always changing shape and direction, never beginning, never ending.

They are the closest form of subatomic immortality. Ironically, that's why I'm able to control them as well.

Because of my unique nature, not only in the Speed Force, but in the timestream as well, I can do things to tachyons that others can't. I bet even the legendary Rip Hunter would have difficulty trying this little trick.

I focused my concentration and raised my hands toward the machine. I felt the tachyons bombarding me, a familiar feeling.

My connection to the Speed Force was stronger than ever. For that reason I was able to do the impossible and actually steal the speed from particles that aren't even moving in one direction.

I began to see certain things that would have baffled me before. Now…now I understood what it was I was seeing.

The first time I saw Hawkgirl I saw visions of someone embracing her. Someone moving almost too fast to be seen by normal eyes. My eyes are far from normal these days. I saw the same things happening again around Hawkgirl and I understood what they meant finally. But before I could handle that I had to focus.

The energies began to subside as I commanded them to halt. Hourman continued manipulating the worlogog. Because of the leeway I bought him he was able to now control the chronal output. Metron would have been proud.

"No!" Savage cried out. "What have you done! My beautiful machine! The universe would be recreated in _my_ image!"

"Enough," said Superman.

With grace that the original Wonder Woman would have admired, this future Superman cut down Savage's exo-skeleton by swiping his hand through the center. A ghostly form popped out of the side holding Savage by the waist. It was Resurrection Man, who had apparently chosen a power set that allowed him to remove Savage from the suit somehow.

"Took me awhile," Mitch Shelley said, "But I finally found a dislodge on that Kymerian dead-man's switch on the suit, Vandal."

In my time I've seen a thousand different heroes overcome a thousand different scenarios. None of then, statistically speaking, should have come out alive. But they did, and seeing what their ancestors have turned into because of their survival, I'm glad. Relaxed, even.

The future was in good hands.

* * *

"Think it's about time we head for home?" Jay asked.

I nodded. Back at the Justice Legion's headquarters, after Vandal Savage had been locked away in a vault on Pluto, I stood near Jay and the statuesque Wonder Woman. She had been telling me about how difficult it must have been for the original Wonder Woman to enter Man's World on her own, without the support of an entire planet behind her. I told her the next time I saw Diana that I would pass that along.

Superman shook my hand and thanked me for coming to their aid. He said that if I ever found myself lost in the timestream again that they would come for me. Who knows? I could get used to staying in their time.

Batman and Aquaman had decided to stay back on Pluto to ensure Vandal's security. Can't say I blame then. He's possibly the most dangerous villain that ever lived. _Ever_.

Jay caught sight of Mitch Shelley and stepped aside to speak with him. Fine by me. I had catch part of Hawkgirl's gaze anyway. She was in the middle of a discussion, more like an argument, with Hourman. I was worried about this, but it looked like I would need to confront them.

"You must understand how delicate—" Hourman said.

"We've corrected the timestream a thousand times over," Hawkgirl interrupted. "Don't pretend this is impossible."

She saw me approaching and suddenly tensed up. I smiled, but the effect was lost on her because of her jump to caution, and a robot like Hourman probably wouldn't care if you smiled at him or not.

"We're about ready to leave," I said to Hourman while looking at Hawkgirl. "Jay is just saying his last goodbye."

"There's something we need to discuss," Hawkgirl said.

"You're not coming with us."

Her chin raised up. It was that slight bit of defiance mixed with an edge of curiosity that made her a true Thanagarian. She was strong and I was sure more than ever now that she was aware of what I had suspected already.

"I'm sorry," I said. "It's not a good idea if you return to my time with me and Jay. When I was connected through the worlogog, I saw some things. Things about you. Maybe they were bits of your future swirling around the present. I'm not sure exactly, but I do know that the visions I saw served as a warning."

I pulled in a breath as I tried to reason how best to explain this. "I'm uniquely connected to not only the Speed Force, but the timestream as well. I can sense things, for lack of a better word. I know that what I saw isn't supposed to happen. I know that you feel a sort of connection with me. I felt it, too. I'm sorry, but—we can't fall in love."

"I don't understand," she said.

"I saw what I believe to be myself, hovering around you from within the timestream. I know it's difficult to comprehend, but I have a sense that I was shown those visions of us being close so that I would know to avoid it. I'm sorry."

I turned away from her, bitter. I'm sure that she felt confused as well. I know what I saw and I believe I know what it meant. Why was I shown it? No idea. But I do know that a hero can't always do what he wants. Sometimes duty has to come before things like love.

And now that Wally is starting a new avenue in life, so am I. I can't let myself be open like that, not when I have no idea what's coming down the road next.

It's a whole new highway I'm running down.

I left Hawkgirl behind in the 853rd century as Jay and I allowed Hourman to send us home. I felt something pull at my insides, only instead of assuming it was the chronal leap, I knew it was my heartstrings.

END

Author's Note

It's been a fun ride! I'd like to thank Mike Hintze for letting me play in the DC Infinity universe (search for it online, kids, it's a great group fanfic site). The Flash is one of my all time favorite characters, but it's time I let someone else ride the lightning. Thanks for reading and make sure to check back soon, because who knows what will happen next?


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